Travel stories and interview sections like Tim Ferriss and John Lee Dumas, and guests like Michael O'Neal, we talk to travelers and digital nomads about their entrepreneurship and amazing stories, with music and environmental soundscapes.

Hayden's Travel Fears (And Why He Doesn't Agree with the Common Ones)<p><em>Hayden rambles about:</em></p> <p class="p1">The common travel fears and why he doesn’t have them, getting over a fear of flying, panic attacks, being robbed at angry-look-point, losing a leg, authenticity, why he doesn’t use profanity on the show, becoming Jacked Nicholson, the mediocre old future Hayden who forever fuels present Hayden’s life and what his travel fears are.</p> <p> </p> <p>It's Thursday, we're checking in with Hayden and his nomadic motorcycle journey through every country in mainland Europe.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Resources:</strong></p> <ul> <li>Follow Hayden on Instagram: <a href= "https://www.instagram.com/backpackdigital/">@backpackdigital</a></li> </ul> <p><br /> <em>Production & Development for Travel Stories Podcast by</em> <a href="http://www.podcastmasters.net"><em>Podcast Masters</em></a></p>Listen:

What a Way to Make a Living - Sean Whitehead visits TSP<p><em>Hayden and Sean ramble about:</em></p> <p class="p1">Working 9-5 (What a way to make a living), Carnaval, learning a language, first time travel, discipline, traveling on $500, nervous traveling, nervous riding, & the notion of memories > dreams.</p> <p> </p> <p>It's Thursday, we're checking in with Hayden and his nomadic motorcycle journey through every country in mainland Europe.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Resources:</strong></p> <ul> <li>Follow Hayden on Instagram: <a href= "https://www.instagram.com/backpackdigital/">@backpackdigital</a></li> </ul> <p><br /> <em>Production & Development for Travel Stories Podcast by</em> <a href="http://www.podcastmasters.net"><em>Podcast Masters</em></a></p>Listen:

Working Class Travel: Let's Get That Trip Booked<p><em>Hayden rambles about:</em></p> <p class="p1">Being ill, being cynical, Russell Brand, the English class system, bikini girls in the Maldives, travel boredom & how you can afford a trip out this year.</p> <p> </p> <p>It's Thursday, we're checking in with Hayden and his nomadic motorcycle journey through every country in mainland Europe.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Resources:</strong></p> <ul> <li>Follow Hayden on Instagram: <a href= "https://www.instagram.com/backpackdigital/">@backpackdigital</a></li> </ul> <p><br /> <em>Production & Development for Travel Stories Podcast by</em> <a href="http://www.podcastmasters.net"><em>Podcast Masters</em></a></p>Listen:

"How Can You Afford to Travel?" - A Look at the Ol' Finances<p> <em>Hayden rambles about:</em></p> <p>Being working class, the genesis of the podcast, networking, how he became location independent & his monthly wage.</p> <p><em>Hayden breaks down:</em></p> <p>How much it costs to travel forever, how to afford it & how to start.</p> <p><em>Hayden <span style= "text-decoration: underline;">rants</span> about:</em></p> <p>Living a life you don't want to live, society, the 'powers that be' & stolen time.</p> <p> </p> <p style="text-align: left;">It's Thursday, we're checking in with Hayden and his nomadic motorcycle journey through every country in mainland Europe.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Resources:</strong></p> <ul> <li>Follow Hayden on Instagram: <a href= "https://www.instagram.com/backpackdigital/">@backpackdigital</a></li> </ul> <p><br /> <em>Production & Development for Travel Stories Podcast by</em> <a href="http://www.podcastmasters.net"><em>Podcast Masters</em></a></p>Listen:

Hayden's Lessons Learned (The Hard Way) - Part 1<p>How can one man make so many mistakes in such a short trip? </p> <p>Well, how else do you learn lessons?</p> <p> </p> <p>Hayden discusses (rambles around):</p> <p>First aid, stolen wallets, introversion, trusting others, being in the nether-zone and much more.</p> <p><em>Follow Hayden & Gloria's travel through Europe on Instagram: <a href= "https://www.instagram.com/backpackdigital/">@backpackdigital</a></em></p>Listen:

Update: Where Has TSP Been? (... And Where Are We Going?) <p>Hello again!</p> <p>It's been a little while. This inbetweenisode will explain a little and let you know what the future holds!</p> <p>What would you like to hear between now and Season Six?</p> <p><strong>Connect with Hayden:</strong></p> <ul> <li>on Instagram- @backpackdigital</li> <li>on the ol' Dog & Bone- +447745889472</li> </ul> <p><em>(Note: Telemarketing representatives will be talked to death) </em></p>Listen:

Unpacking Season Five<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Cody and Nicole are back to help Hayden as he unpacks season five, discusses his favorite overarching travel themes, highlights his favorite moments of the season, and looks forward to the epic upcoming changes of season six.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">[link]</span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In this unpacking and season five finale of the Travel Stories Podcast, Hayden is joined again by Cody and Nicole to reflect on the past season of episodes. They discuss their highlights from the past few months and what they thought of their guests and the stories they shared this season. They also share flashbacks to their favorite moments. You’ll remember this season featured Kinga Phillips, Rachel Rudwall, Amie and Matt Leichtfuss, Derek Loudermilk, Amanda Kendle, Juliana Dever, Yann Ilunga, Kristin Addie, Taylor Zajonc, Dana Newman, Eric Trules, Mark Wolters, and Rolf Potts. The gang shares their favorite episodes and moments from this season.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In between ramblings that get entirely off-track, discussions about their lives, and opinions on travel, the gang actually discuss the themes that they see cropping up in every episode of the season, and how those travel motifs make the season and the journeys richer and more flavorful. They talk about their own lives and goals, the connections Hayden made this season, how the gang makes adventures out of their everyday lives, how Cody composed his scores this season, and which animal Hayden should choose as his familiar. They also discuss how skepticism might play a hand in their understanding of travel stories, those that have inspired us this season, the power of solo travel, whether or not Christmas should be every day, and the concept of “being enough” for travel. Hayden, Cody, and Nicole tear this season apart and examine every bit they can reach while also teasing one another and joking until the main thread of conversation has been completely lost.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The team also discusses past guests and fans from previous seasons, travel opportunities for anyone and everyone, and their favorite themes from the season. Their finish of the season focuses on the upcoming season, and our biggest season-to-season changes to date. Coming up next season is a total shift, because Hayden will be traveling around mainland Europe on his motorbike, discussing his upcoming daily travel vlogs, his interviews with strangers he meets along the way, and his own explorations of themes he comes across in his travelers. Listen to the whole episode to hear Hayden explain his goals for season six.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">We hope that you enjoy the break, and (even more so) that you enjoy our upcoming season six!</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Links and References</span></h2> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Come visit our</span> <a href= "http://www.patreon.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Patreon page</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at: hayden@backpackdigital.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow us on</span> <a href= "http://www.facebook.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Facebook</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">,</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Twitter</span></a> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">and</span> <a href= "http://www.instagram.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Instagram</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href= "http://www.codycrabb.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;"><a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/">Works By N.L. Mello</a></span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;">You can buy <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Venus</span></em> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">on paperback or Kindle on</span> <a href= "http://amzn.to/2meVEJc"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Amazon</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> </ul>Listen:

S5E13: The Gates of Hell - Rolf Potts: Author | Vagabonder | Traveler<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">How do you become the traveler you know you can be? What is the first step on the road to travel? Rolf Potts has the answers to these questions in his back pocket, and he’s more than willing to share; in fact, he’s been giving people this advice for years. Rolf is also one of the reasons Hayden himself got into travel, as Rolf and his book,</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Vagabonding</span></em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">, crystallized what Hayden had been thinking about travel for his whole life until that point. It gave him the push to become the traveler he knew that he could be all along. Rolf Potts - travel writer, adventurer, teacher, vagabonder, and legend - is the one you want to be at your side when you need that push into travel. He knows that vital first step to becoming the traveler.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href= "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/travel-stories-podcast-immersive/id1097413901?mt=2&ls=1"> <img class="alignnone wp-image-729 size-full" src= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/iTunesButtonOPTIMIZED.png" alt="Subscribe to the inspiring travel podcast on iTunes" width= "150" height="55" /></a><a href= "http://subscribeonandroid.com/travelstoriespodcast.libsyn.com/rss"><img class="alignnone wp-image-728 size-full" src= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/androidbuttonOPTIMIZED.png" alt="Subscribe to the inspiring travel podcast on Android" width= "150" height="54" /></a></span></p> <p> </p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Gates of Hell</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Rolf Potts revisits us to tell a story about the people you meet when you travel - both those you want to meet, and those you dread meeting. Rolf traveled to Namibia, which he had heard was quite isolated and severe. What was most famous was the sand dunes, of course, but Rolf was intrigued by the Skeleton Coast, also commonly referred to as the Gates of Hell or the Land God Made in Anger. The road basically disappears, so it is pretty much impossible to drive the entire way along the Skeleton Coast to the border, and, as such, Rolf didn’t expect to see many people in this place. The coast is lined with shipwrecks, each of which has its own turnout off the highway. Ruin after ruin, all the way up the coast, giving a haunted, romantic feel to those who view the rotted ships and those very human feelings. Rolf visited one of these particular ships and encountered Namibian guys who wanted to sell him souvenirs, tribesmen who sell polished rocks to tourists to make a living. He had a great conversation with a group of them that granted him an even deeper human feeling than the ships had, through the grace of human connection. He had never dreamed of this part of Namibia, this very real village life, until he turned away from the shipwreck and started talking to people.</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Rolf Potts, Vagabonding, and Saying Yes to Adventures</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Rolf Potts, author of</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Vagabonding</span></em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">, the book that helps you along your path, doesn’t want to tell you who to be. Like travel, he doesn’t try to change you; he just wants to help you be a more authentic you. When you’re around people, you’re not your authentic self. If you go somewhere you’ve never been before, however, without anybody you’ve ever met before, you can get out of your comfortable and protective patterns and help reveal your true self as you change over time. Breaking out of typical patterns and thinking about the important parts of who you really are are inevitable results of travel. Saying yes to things can help contribute to this, as well, but you should analyze the reasons you might say no, and use those reasons to see whether yes would be a good idea first. Hayden and Rolf discuss this in depth, as Hayden will say yes to anything while Rolf Potts is more of an introvert. Blindly saying yes to everything, Rolf believes, can be a dangerous thing, more likely to result in something more commercial, inauthentic, or risky. You ought to think your decisions through and not hold yourself back from spontaneous human interactions if you want to have them. In fact,</span> <em><span style="font-weight: 400;">never</span></em> <span style="font-weight: 400;">hold yourself back - especially not from traveling. Rolf Potts shares an anecdote about his grandfather that taught him life was never going to reward him, and so he had to create his own space for what he wanted to do, which was to travel. There is always the space to travel if you can make it.</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Deciding When to Travel with Rolf Potts</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Vagabonding starts now,” says Rolf Potts. “It starts when you decide to do it.” Once you’ve made the decision, and it is solely</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">your</span></em> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">decision, you’re no longer beholden to the fear and compulsion that you have to stay in the daily grind. You can reinvent your relationship to work and make time for your interests and travels. Rolf Potts argues that freedom is tied to labor, that he feels that, once he had spent enough time working, he had earned the leisure time and monetary ability to travel. “We’re all born with winning tickets if we actualize our time well,” he tells us. When he was working, he could think ahead to the road trips and travels he was earning by doing so. He believes you can earn your journeys so long as you do not live vicariously through others, either. This is your life, and you only have one. Rolf Potts shares what he believes is the first step on the road to that life of travel. He believes people see the future as an excuse for justifying the present. You have to stop making excuses and just take his advice. There’s a world out there waiting to be traveled, if you just decide to do it.</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Links and References</span></h2> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Come visit our</span> <a href= "http://www.patreon.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Patreon page</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at: hayden@backpackdigital.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow us on</span> <a href= "http://www.facebook.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Facebook</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">,</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Twitter</span></a> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">and</span> <a href= "http://www.instagram.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Instagram</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href= "http://www.codycrabb.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website:</span> <a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Works By N.L. Mello</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">You can buy</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Venus</span></em> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">on paperback or Kindle on</span> <a href= "http://amzn.to/2meVEJc"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Amazon</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Visit Rolf Potts’ website simply at</span> <a href= "https://rolfpotts.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">RolfPotts.com</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Check out one of Rolf’s other books,</span> <a href= "https://rolfpotts.com/books/marco-polo-didnt-go-there/"><em><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Marco Polo Didn’t Go There</span></em></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Stop by Rolf’s other website,</span> <a href= "http://www.vagablogging.net/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Vagablogging</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Tweet Rolf Potts at</span> <a href= "https://twitter.com/rolfpotts"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@rolfpotts</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;">View Rolf’s stunning images on Instagram at <a href= "https://www.instagram.com/rolfpotts/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">rolfpotts</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> </ul>Listen:

S5E12: When You’ve Gotta Go - Mark Wolters: YouTuber | Professor | Traveler<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">When should one travel? When they are young, while they are unattached and have all the time in the world? When they are middle-aged, and in the thick of their “normal” lives? When they are old, and it seems that all things have passed them by? The answer, of course, is “yes.” An honest “yes” to all of the above, and Mark Wolters knows better than anybody how important it is to be honest. He believes that you should truly travel right now, because you never know what can happen later. If you get a chance, he thinks you should take it. He offers honest and genuine travel advice on his YouTube channel, Wolters World, and assists people as they begin their own travel adventures through the world. “As they say,” Mark reminds us, “you only live once.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href= "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/travel-stories-podcast-immersive/id1097413901?mt=2&ls=1"> <img class="alignnone wp-image-729 size-full" src= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/iTunesButtonOPTIMIZED.png" alt="Subscribe to the inspiring travel podcast on iTunes" width= "150" height="55" /></a><a href= "http://subscribeonandroid.com/travelstoriespodcast.libsyn.com/rss"><img class="alignnone wp-image-728 size-full" src= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/androidbuttonOPTIMIZED.png" alt="Subscribe to the inspiring travel podcast on Android" width= "150" height="54" /></a></span></p> <p> </p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">When You’ve Gotta Go</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">When Mark Wolters studied abroad in Argentina, his goal was to meet locals. Lucky for him, he did, and almost immediately, when he met two local girls who invited him to a gathering outside of town that weekend. Unfortunately for him, though, he abruptly got very sick that week; he managed to get himself under control long enough to go meet these girls for their party that Saturday, but, maybe, he should have just stayed. Having not gone to the bathroom in four days, Mark Wolters arrives at Saturday night with everything hitting him all at once, affecting him to the point of tears. He manages to get on a train (without a bathroom), reach a station (also without a bathroom), and make it into Buenos Aires (where everything is closed - ipso facto, without a bathroom). Everything is closed up except Mark that Sunday morning in Buenos Aires, so he just decides to take matters into his own hands - with a handful of wax napkins, a hole in the ground, and without any clothes. From then on, Mark Wolters made sure to memorize all the maps of a location when he travels, because (in his words): “You never know when you’re gonna have to go.”</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mark Wolters’ Travel Soundtrack</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mark Wolters made himself into a human guidebook over the course of many years. Like so many travelers, according to Hayden, Mark began with a countercultural attitude. He grew out his long, luxurious hair as an original self-defining statement about himself, gathered a punk-rock attitude that may have contributed to his travel desires, and decided to explore the world in any way that tied into this life. The romantic nature of travel directly ties into the romanticism of rock music, he believes, which leads him to announce that the soundtrack to Mark’s travel life would prominently feature “Why Don't We Get Drunk” by Jimmy Buffett, and “Don’t Stop Believin’” by Journey. Mark gives travel advice by being honest, throwing in little extra tidbits, and reassuring others that anything they do will be worthwhile if they make it so. Mark Wolters even manages to give the much-experienced Hayden advice for his ride through Europe later this year, spreading bike-related advice specific to various locations throughout Europe, flavored with anecdotes and jokes from his life and from his friends. Mark Wolters does love to give genuine, honest advice.</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Honest Travel Advice from ‘Wolters World’</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mark Wolters is the owner, founder, and star of the YouTube channel Wolters World, telling the honest truth about places - the good, the bad, what to do, what not to do. Having began the channel in 2010 with videos to help the woman who would become his wife learn Portuguese, Mark has only evolved his content since. He decided to do something different with the YouTube channel when he got a guidebook that made a small town sound fantastic - until he got there, and everything was closed, small, and a huge letdown. Mark Wolters sat down, and he thought how horribly disappointing it would be if someone who only had so much vacation time wasted it on places they had only read good lies about. He was inspired by this to create honest travel videos - telling people the truly good and the truly, truly bad things about places he traveled to. He believes in making sure people have the best travel experience possible. To travelers, Mark Wolters is a friend who will be honest and truly help you out. It’s difficult to find truthful stuff out there, he thinks, so he goes out with an open mind and gives his completely honest opinions to others. After all, if you only include the good, you’re just making a commercial.</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Links and References</span></h2> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Come visit our</span> <a href= "http://www.patreon.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Patreon page</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at: hayden@backpackdigital.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow us on</span> <a href= "http://www.facebook.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Facebook</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">,</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Twitter</span></a> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">and</span> <a href= "http://www.instagram.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Instagram</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href= "http://www.codycrabb.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website:</span> <a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Works By N.L. Mello</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">You can buy</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Venus</span></em> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">on paperback or Kindle on</span> <a href= "http://amzn.to/2meVEJc"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Amazon</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Visit Mark’s YouTube channel at</span> <a href= "https://www.youtube.com/user/woltersworld"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Wolters World</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Check out Mark’s website, also at</span> <a href= "http://www.woltersworld.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Wolters World</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Chat with Mark on Facebook,</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">also</span></em> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">at</span> <a href= "https://www.facebook.com/woltersworld"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Wolters World</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Enjoy Mark’s photos on Instagram at, you guessed it,</span> <a href= "https://www.instagram.com/woltersworld/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">woltersworld</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Tweet Mark on Twitter at none other than</span> <a href= "https://twitter.com/woltersworld"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@woltersworld</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Donate to Robert Heaney's fundraiser <a href= "https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/robertheaney">here</a>!</span></li> </ul>Listen:

S5E11: Grazing with Camels - Eric Trules: Performance Artist | Podcaster | Traveler<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">What is there awaiting travelers in the desert? What is there out in nature, waiting to reconnect with man? Eric Trules has discovered it, he thinks. That nothingness that means something: a nomadic way of life, a connection to nature, a cooperation with the land, a lack of civilization that means an increase in humanity. Eric Trules has been a professional in the performing, literary, and filmic arts for almost five decades. He’s worked as a dancer, in the theater, as an actor, and even as a clown. In his life outside of his work, he takes what he’s learned in his decades of performance and applies it to his thinking about travel. Trules’ show, “e-travels with e. trules,” contains musical scores, sound effects, and everything in between, and his magnificent voice telling his amazing stories. Living in Echo Park, California, and traveling all over the world, Eric has learned how to make others laugh, how to help life happen, how to parent his nephew, how to make travel his medium, how to make oneself vulnerable, and how to connect people in challenging times reconnect again. Life awaits you in the desert, if you are brave enough to seek it on your camel safari.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href= "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/travel-stories-podcast-immersive/id1097413901?mt=2&ls=1"> <img class="alignnone wp-image-729 size-full" src= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/iTunesButtonOPTIMIZED.png" alt="Subscribe to the inspiring travel podcast on iTunes" width= "150" height="55" /></a><a href= "http://subscribeonandroid.com/travelstoriespodcast.libsyn.com/rss"><img class="alignnone wp-image-728 size-full" src= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/androidbuttonOPTIMIZED.png" alt="Subscribe to the inspiring travel podcast on Android" width= "150" height="54" /></a></span></p> <p> </p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Eric Trules: Grazing with Camels</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s Israel, in May of 1999, and travel is easy. As a result, Eric has the idea to go out into the Sinai Desert, the home of camels, Moses, and the Red Sea, and have the sun bake the life out of him and suck the logic out. The best of Israel comes to the Sinai Desert to escape their day-to-day lives, because the sun, the earth, and the sea will slow you down until time is lost and you have no desire to return to civilization. He went to a camp on the Red Sea and adventured for himself, feeling the desire to walk in the steps of Moses and Joshua and to sleep under an endless starry sky. First, he needed to get enough supplies and camels to make the journey he wanted to take both possible and worthwhile. He composed a team of people willing to uncivilize themselves in the desert, and together they took a camel safari. They followed the same path that the Jews followed all those years ago, witnessing the same journey they did, navigating broad spaces, narrow canyons, and the changing day as the sun shifted. Eric found an oasis here. He realized that there is nothing in the desert: no politics, no borders, no religions. There is only a nomadic, respectful, dependent way of life, which requires a cooperation with the land and which has existed for thousands of years. In the desert, modern civilization and its instant conveniences disappear. In the desert, you realize how distant we have grown from nature, and how much we have lost touch with ourselves in the process, and with the very things that make us human. You gain independence from nature in civilization, disrespecting and ignoring mother nature and ourselves in doing so, and you lose your sense of awe in the power of the natural universe. Eric experienced a rare perfect moment under the orange desert moon. He remembered there was bloodshed in this land now, and that only hatred and history causes problems like these, nothing inherent. Everyone could benefit from taking a camel safari into the desert and forgetting about civilization.</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Helping Others Laugh and Experience Life, the Eric Trules Way</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Making a fool of yourself will help others to laugh, and Eric Trules knows this to be absolutely true. After all, he took a little French in high school and purposefully butchered the language in a humorous way just to make his French audience smile. He made himself vulnerable in doing so, in making himself a person trying to communicate rather than someone who does not wish to understand. Language opens people up makes connections between different cultures and individuals. As a clown, Eric Trules formed a company of New York clowns who traveled the city, completely out of context, and disrupted reality, creating public theatrical mayhem to make the everyday experience something bigger, comical, lighthearted, and relieving. If you put yourself out there, you show people a different side of life. He does consider his full-time job being “Mr. Mom,” however, as he is a father to his Indonesian nephew from Sumatra. He wholeheartedly believes in the mantra: “Life is what happens while you’re waiting for other plans to work out.” Eric Trules once asked a woman for directions and ended up marrying her, so he understands the value of taking risks, making yourself vulnerable, and seeing what comes of it. He also sees the value of compromising different outlooks and styles in life with those around you, your partners in life. Vulnerability is key.</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Building Your Brand and Making Yourself Vulnerable</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Eric Trules has been building his podcast since Y2K. He has a long background as a performing artist, writer, and storyteller who has been focusing more and more on travel stories for a while now. He started a travel blog back in 2000 in an internet coffee shop in Southeast Asia that went by the same name as his podcast now. He wanted to capture the flavor of where he was and what he was doing for his friends, and so one of his friends helped him create and design his blog for him. After this, he began to perform on stages, both in Los Angeles and internationally, telling his stories everywhere. Witnessing this, a student of his told him that they preferred hearing him tell stories over reading them, and suggested that he create a podcast. Since then, he has gotten students to help him with sound design, sound effects, and music composition, collaborating to convey his voice, his tone, his vibes from his travels, contributing information and music and sounds and tales that relieve people from the other horrible stories they hear in the news. Composers are able to achieve sensations and emotions of places just through music and, by listening to these stories, they’re able to compose such beautiful sounds and inspire their listeners. Eric Trules strives to inspire. In fact, his stories, he says, have two tracks: to help listeners travel vicariously through his story and the music and the feel, and, for those who have traveled a lot, to strike a memory chord for those who have been to where he’s traveled. Travel is his medium, and he wants to help everyone divided by borders, religions, politics reconnect again through their mutual humanity, by learning about other people through these travel stories. He hopes that his stories connect people in these challenging times and over challenging barriers. One of Eric’s maxims that he offers his students is that vulnerability is their greatest strength. Your wounds and your lives and your deepest stories are your treasures that you have to share with people, and the same is true of any story being told. Vulnerability puts you in place as an underdog and changes how people react to you, and helps you leave your house in the morning to take the risk on travel.</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Links and References</span></h2> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Come visit our</span> <a href= "http://www.patreon.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Patreon page</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at: hayden@backpackdigital.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow us on</span> <a href= "http://www.facebook.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Facebook</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">,</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Twitter</span></a> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">and</span> <a href= "http://www.instagram.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Instagram</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href= "http://www.codycrabb.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website:</span> <a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Works By N.L. Mello</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">You can buy</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Venus</span></em> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">on paperback or Kindle on</span> <a href= "http://amzn.to/2meVEJc"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Amazon</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Go to Eric Trules’ website at:</span> <a href= "http://erictrules.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">EricTrules.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Eric’s podcast can be found at:</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href= "http://www.erictrules.com/podcast">e-travels with e. trules</a></span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;">You can buy Herman Hesse’s book <a href= "https://smile.amazon.com/Siddhartha-Hermann-Hesse/dp/0553208845"><em> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Siddhartha</span></em> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">on Amazon here</span></a> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">and</span> <a href= "https://smile.amazon.com/Steppenwolf-Novel-Hermann-Hesse/dp/0312278675"> <em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Steppenwolf</span></em> <span style="font-weight: 400;">here</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> </ul>Listen:

S5E10: The Big Move - Dana Newman: YouTuber | Expat | Traveler<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Cultural differences are impossible not to notice once you have traveled as much as Dana Newman has. Language and these differences Dana has found between Germany and America have helped her make a home out of Munich, and to find herself in her surroundings. Dana Newman is an American expatriate, originally from Florida, in the United States, now living in Munich, Germany. Her YouTube channel, Wanted Adventure, explores the cultural differences between the U.S. and Germany and talks about the expat life, moving to a new country, and all that that entails. This conversation from two self-proclaimed chatterboxes covers cultural connections, environmental differences, how Dana got to where she is, and everything in between, as Dana shares pearls of wisdom from Germany.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href= "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/travel-stories-podcast-immersive/id1097413901?mt=2&ls=1"> <img class="alignnone wp-image-729 size-full" src= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/iTunesButtonOPTIMIZED.png" alt="Subscribe to the inspiring travel podcast on iTunes" width= "150" height="55" /></a><a href= "http://subscribeonandroid.com/travelstoriespodcast.libsyn.com/rss"><img class="alignnone wp-image-728 size-full" src= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/androidbuttonOPTIMIZED.png" alt="Subscribe to the inspiring travel podcast on Android" width= "150" height="54" /></a></span></p> <p> </p> <h2>The Big Move</h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">After graduating from college, Dana Newman, like a lot of graduates, felt rather lost. She didn’t know what she wanted to do from her life, apart from have an adventure. She felt an invisible rope pulling her towards Europe, and so she packed up two duffel bags, obtained her very first pairs of boots, and bought a one-way ticket to Prague. Once she arrived in Prague, she felt distant, out of touch, and alone - before she took a deep breath and reminded herself that this was all part of the adventure that she wanted to have. She trusted her own process, and yet was still afraid that the Prague of her imagination was too different from the Prague in reality. She had to handle unexpected rooming situations and a topsy-turvy tunnel system, but, even though she wasn’t sure where she was going, she managed to make her way into the city center. She knew something good had to exist out in her new world, and she found it - everything that she had been searching for when she came to live in Europe. She knew, deep in her core, that her adventure had brought her to exactly where she was supposed to be in the world in that moment.</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Dana Newman, Cultural Differences, and Language Barriers</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">What is a normal Monday for you? For Dana Newman, it changes, depending on the week. Most of her Monday is spent preparing for her Wednesday, because she dictates her own schedule. Upon moving to Germany, Dana was able to discover that autonomy, and the difference between living somewhere and traveling through that same place. It took three years for Dana to feel at home in Germany, because it took her that long to build up traditions and to know what to expect around the corner. She started to decipher the language, to adjust to the culture. She taught herself the language, which was a difficult adaptation, but conversation was a vital part of living in any new environment. When you reach that understanding, you really connect to the people and to that world. Dana may miss the sun in Florida, and the ability to understand her environment entirely, but she’s happy in Germany. She loves the architecture, the ability to walk everywhere, and the home she has made for herself in Europe.</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Being an Expatriate and Experiencing Germany</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Dana Newman, besides being an expatriate, is also a YouTube sensation. Her videos highlight the differences she finds between cultures - differences that people often wouldn’t think even existed between two countries. She is fascinated by these differences, and couldn’t stop noticing them after she moved. Her friends were interested, and fellow Americans, but she soon realized that Germans liked her videos, too. They were interested in her experiences as an American living in Germany and witnessing how she sees their country. She likes to compare different cultures and explore the two sides of the coin between America and Germany. She can see these differences in her own life, in the ways she has changed her ways of doing things as a form of adaptation from Germany to America - for example, her laundry. She’s made friends, though, in Germany. She has a home, and the feeling that comes with it. She feels at home in Germany now, and never would have made it to that point if she had too many expectations. When she doesn’t have expectations, and tries to be open to what happens, she knows she’s able to continue her adventure regardless and keeps her mind open and let herself be open to new experiences. She encourages not putting restrictions on yourself when you travel; you have to be open to anything that can happen. Traveling can let you look at your home in new ways once you’ve traveled a bit, as well. Making a home and appreciating where you’re from is a glorious side-effect of travel.</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Links and References</span></h2> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Come visit our</span> <a href= "http://www.patreon.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Patreon page</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at: hayden@backpackdigital.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow us on</span> <a href= "http://www.facebook.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Facebook</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">,</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Twitter</span></a> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">and</span> <a href= "http://www.instagram.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Instagram</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href= "http://www.codycrabb.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website:</span> <a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Works By N.L. Mello</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">You can buy</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Venus</span></em> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">on paperback or Kindle on</span> <a href= "http://amzn.to/2meVEJc"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Amazon</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Watch Dana’s YouTube videos at</span> <a href= "https://www.youtube.com/wantedadventure"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Wanted Adventure</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Send Dana a Tweet at</span> <a href= "https://twitter.com/WantedAdventure"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@WantedAdventure on Twitter</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;">Chat with Dana on Facebook at <a href="https://www.facebook.com/WantedAdventure/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Dana Newman, Wanted Adventure</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> </ul>Listen:

S5E9: Finding Fatherhood in Kenya - Taylor Zajonc: Shipwreck Expert | Author | Traveler<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Knowing why you want to do something is half the way to achieving that something. Understanding and developing your passion is the drive a person needs to becoming who they truly want to be. Taylor Zajonc, a writer, father, maritime historian, Explorers Club member, and shipwreck explorer who has literally been to the bottom of the ocean and back again, has endless pearls of wisdom just like these. He knows that approaching your own life with an “open heart, a lack of cynicism, and as little ego as you can” will lead to amazing places. What would you be willing to suffer through for an experience? Have you discovered your life’s true passion? What would you find if you played soccer in Kenya? Taylor wants to help you find the answers.</span></p> <p><a href= "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/travel-stories-podcast-immersive/id1097413901?mt=2&ls=1"> <img class="alignnone wp-image-729 size-full" src= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/iTunesButtonOPTIMIZED.png" alt="Subscribe to the inspiring travel podcast on iTunes" width= "150" height="55" /></a><a href= "http://subscribeonandroid.com/travelstoriespodcast.libsyn.com/rss"><img class="alignnone wp-image-728 size-full" src= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/androidbuttonOPTIMIZED.png" alt="Subscribe to the inspiring travel podcast on Android" width= "150" height="54" /></a></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Finding Fatherhood in Kenya</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Taylor was involved in a deep sea shipwreck company years ago and took a trip to Africa. On the way back, he and his team stopped in Kenya, residing for the duration of their stay in a small rural camp, in a village where young warriors once trained. Due to this being an authentic slice of rural village life, there was a lot of downtime for Taylor to just sit down and think about what he wanted from himself, from his life, from his own future. There was also time to play soccer with the same little boy who showed up every day at the same time with a soccer ball. This, combined with the feeling of flying down a dirt road in a Land Rover, made Taylor want to be a father, and a writer. He wanted to capture that free feeling, and to make his life all about experiences like that. He decided to try harder to write, to get published, and to be a father. He now has two books out and a fifteen-month-old son, Sammy, all of which he can trace back to that little boy he played soccer with in Kenya.</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Taylor Zajonc and Discovering Your Passion</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Taylor, a native of the Pacific Northwest, is a firm believer in appreciating where you grew up and where you currently are. However, this has not once stopped him from diving to the deepest depths on Earth, a fascination which began at the age of nineteen. His father aided him in boarding a Soviet-era submersible on its trip to the ocean’s floor in the Bermuda Triangle, investigating an old wooden target. This target turned out to be an unexpected historical artifact, over sixteen thousand feet deep, and so, at the age of nineteen, Taylor was able to explore the bottom of the ocean with his own eyes. He had the sudden knowledge that no other human being had experienced what he was experiencing in that moment. He had a realization that changed the trajectory of his life, because he discovered his passion, and was able to understand, develop, and focus on this. When you come back from a journey like his, your overthinking, doubts, and second thoughts no longer matters. What matters is your transformation, and your realization of what is truly important to your travels and to you. Taylor thinks that it is both important to take a moment or two to reflect on your decisions, to make sure you’re safe and getting the most you can out of life, and to let the bad wash out of your memories, leaving only the good, the funny, and the passionate. It’ll help you realize how big the world truly is.</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">What Would You Be Willing to Suffer Through for an Experience?</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Traveling somewhere with a goal in mind, any goal, is important - it will advance your own understanding of what is in this world, and support your passion. Having a goal means learning what you would be willing to suffer through for a travel experience. For Taylor, it’s writing. What is it for you? Taylor believes writing has to come from an experiential place, that there has to be honesty and knowledge of a subject to make a piece more real, because authenticity cannot be faked. The need to overcome our own thoughts and fears to go through a transformational experience is vital. For example, anything and everything Taylor has done in his life scared the crap out of him before he did it. What something looks like in your head versus its reality can be two completely different things, and Taylor has learned that over and over again. Themes like these are obvious in his books -</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">The Wrecking Crew, Red Sun Rogue,</span></em> <span style="font-weight: 400;">and an unnamed third book that will be arriving in 2018. His novels explore the trials and tribulations of a deep sea salvage diver and his unusual ragtag team as they battle pirates, mysteries, and something larger than all of them. His newest novel visits a Georgetown history professor who gets mysteriously summoned on an expedition out of Tanzania. Taylor doesn’t want to write what’s already out there, he wants something that’s got depth, and breadth, and really reaches the reader. He knows what’s important in life, and makes his writing reflect that.</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Links and References</span></h2> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Come visit our</span> <a href= "http://www.patreon.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Patreon page</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at: hayden@backpackdigital.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow us on</span> <a href= "http://www.facebook.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Facebook</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">,</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Twitter</span></a> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">and</span> <a href= "http://www.instagram.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Instagram</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href= "http://www.codycrabb.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website:</span> <a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Works By N.L. Mello</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">You can buy</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Venus</span></em> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">on paperback or Kindle on</span> <a href= "http://amzn.to/2meVEJc"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Amazon</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Visit Taylor’s website at</span> <a href= "http://expeditionwriter.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Expedition Writer</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;">You can buy <a href= "https://smile.amazon.com/Wrecking-Crew-Novel-Taylor-Zajonc/dp/1943075166/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1494798771&sr=8-1&keywords=the+wrecking+crew+taylor+zajonc"> <em><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Wrecking Crew</span></em></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">and</span> <a href= "https://smile.amazon.com/Red-Sun-Rogue-Wrecking-Novel/dp/1943075263/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8"> <em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Red Sun Rogue</span></em></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">on Amazon.</span></li> </ul>Listen:

S5E8: The Ya Fish - Kristin Addis: Dreamer | Hitchhicker | Traveler<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Kristin Addis trusts the world, and she trusts her truest self, the one who hides inside and waits until she is alone to reveal herself. She knows a great deal about solo female travel, having adventured around the world since 2012, and she believes wholeheartedly in talking to strangers and in taking leaps. She offers support to anyone who will listen: if you don’t feel as though you’re understood, or if you don’t know where to look, there are people all around the world who will offer you opportunities to learn who you really are. Solo travel is the purest opportunity to discover yourself.</span></p> <p><a href= "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/travel-stories-podcast-immersive/id1097413901?mt=2&ls=1"> <img class="alignnone wp-image-729 size-full" src= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/iTunesButtonOPTIMIZED.png" alt="Subscribe to the inspiring travel podcast on iTunes" width= "150" height="55" /></a><a href= "http://subscribeonandroid.com/travelstoriespodcast.libsyn.com/rss"><img class="alignnone wp-image-728 size-full" src= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/androidbuttonOPTIMIZED.png" alt="Subscribe to the inspiring travel podcast on Android" width= "150" height="54" /></a></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Ya Fish</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In March 2014, Kristin Addis found herself in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. The snow was blasting her, filling up the grounds surrounding her with white, and Kristin herself was low on money. She had to hitchhike her way eight or nine hours back to her site, and she was in a small town, so not a lot of people were presenting her with travel opportunities. Being a foreign girl in China, though, does have its advantages, and one particular group pulled over their nice car and buckled her in for a white-knuckled ride. An hour outside the city, they stopped to eat with her, which is typically a normal experience, but this was not the case on that day. Instead, she selected a large, living fish to eat, and experienced an incredibly uncommon waitress. Her dinner was ridiculous, and her leftovers were maybe even a little dangerous. In the end, she was just this random girl from California, hitchhiking in a remote part of the world, who ended up with an unexpected gift or two at the end of the day.</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Kristin Addis Advises: How Do I Know If I'm Ready to Travel?</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Kristin Addis is currently staying in Berlin before she goes to Africa, as she knew upon setting foot in Berlin that it would be the perfect environment for her new home base. She utilized a freelance visa, one of the many ways that a lot of the world is opening up when it comes to things like travel. The world, Kristin believes, is opening up travel and accessibility and opportunities to a large chunk of the world, which is better than the past circumstances. Kristin’s grandmother, like her, was a traveler, who shared her photo albums with Kristin. She was Kristin’s only traveling family member, and, in being so, she unconsciously inspired Kristin. After she passed away, Kristin and her mother found her journal and embraced her legacy, exploring the world as she saw it, and imparting their own experiences, as well. Any place exists how you experience it, how you document it, and what you get out of it. Kristin firmly embraced her travel bug, spending summers abroad, saving her money, burning her bridges and returning to Asia where she felt she belonged. She wanted to learn about different cultures in depth; she moved without support and immersed herself. She stuck it out, and was amazing by her own ability to embrace different experiences and a new way of life. It wasn’t an easy decision; she was terrified, she agonized over it, but she didn’t want to wonder anymore. She found the right community to explore her options, realized her dreams were possible, and set out to find her true self.</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Making Connections While Solo Traveling</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Kristin Addis has been solo traveling for four-and-a-half years, but she doesn’t feel alone. She meets people locally, new friends that she makes when she immerses herself in a culture. She has been finding her real self; other people impact how you act, what you feel, but when you’re alone, nobody stops you from making decisions or having ideas. It’s freeing, incredibly powering, and a magnificent opportunity to discover your true self. You’re never alone, not really. Sometimes people approach Kristin, wanting to help her, to take care of her. She is never short of options for people to spend time with anywhere in the world. It’s easy to put up walls with people you don’t know, but making connections with those around you is easy once you let yourself understand that you are all traveling just the same. It’s pretty surprising how many opportunities can come up if you make seeking them out your priority. Kristin tends towards solo travel and a less touristy type of journey half-from necessity, and half-from distraction, as her experiences were so amazing that she felt comfort didn’t really need too large of a space in her life. Penny-pinching Kristin also learned how to trust those around her. She trusted in the pure, honest experience of trusting another person and, once she did, she let herself fully experience the world and immerse herself in the cultures surrounding her. She started Be My Travel Muse so that she could encourage other women to experience the world just as she did, so they won’t be afraid of the amazing experiences they can give themselves to learn about their real selves. The real you is waiting; will you travel to find them?</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Links and References</span></h2> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Come visit our</span> <a href= "http://www.patreon.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Patreon page</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at:</span> <a href= "mailto:hayden@backpackdigital.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">hayden@backpackdigital.com</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow us on</span> <a href= "http://www.facebook.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Facebook</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">,</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Twitter</span></a> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">and</span> <a href= "http://www.instagram.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Instagram</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href= "http://www.codycrabb.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website:</span> <a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Works By N.L. Mello</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">You can buy</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Venus</span></em> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">on paperback or Kindle on</span> <a href= "http://amzn.to/2meVEJc"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Amazon</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Visit Kristin’s website at</span> <a href= "https://www.bemytravelmuse.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Be My Travel Muse</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Check out Kristin’s column on solo female travel advice on</span> <a href="http://www.nomadicmatt.com/female-travel-tips/"><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Nomadic Matt</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Talk to Kristin on Twitter at</span> <a href= "https://twitter.com/BeMyTravelMuse"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@BeMyTravelMuse</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Chat with Kristin on Facebook at</span> <a href= "https://www.facebook.com/kristin.addis.12"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Kristin Addis</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;">Shoot Kristin an email at <a href= "mailto:bemytravelmuse@gmail.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">bemytravelmuse@gmail.com</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> </ul>Listen:

S5E7: Somewhere, Sometime - Yann Ilunga: Polyglot | Podcaster | Traveler<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">How can I connect with the world around me when I travel? How can I immerse myself in a culture? How can I share my experiences with the world? Yann Ilunga has the answer to each of these questions, and can help guide travelers to their own unique solutions. Yann Ilunga is an entrepreneur, podcaster, consultant, and all-around legendarily cool guy, in Hayden’s own words. He is the person Hayden trusts most with helping start blogs and podcasts, and he visits the Travel Stories Podcast to share his tips, to tell his stories, and to encourages an adventurous lifestyle and a community sharing experience.</span></p> <p><a href= "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/travel-stories-podcast-immersive/id1097413901?mt=2&ls=1"> <img class="alignnone wp-image-729 size-full" src= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/iTunesButtonOPTIMIZED.png" alt="Subscribe to the inspiring travel podcast on iTunes" width= "150" height="55" /></a><a href= "http://subscribeonandroid.com/travelstoriespodcast.libsyn.com/rss"><img class="alignnone wp-image-728 size-full" src= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/androidbuttonOPTIMIZED.png" alt="Subscribe to the inspiring travel podcast on Android" width= "150" height="54" /></a></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Somewhere, Sometime</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Yann Ilunga has always been interested in adventure. He grew up outdoorsy, playing football (or soccer, if you’re in the States), and mimicking Indiana Jones and Jack Kerouac, his adventurous, traveling heroes. One of the most amazing things that ever happened to Yann was that he was able to live how his heroes lived when he traveled. Traveling by car along the Atlantic coast of the western part of Ireland with nothing but the ocean, but nature, around him was so powerful, not because he pictured himself as a character like the ones he wanted to become, but because these were the moments that he really felt that everything was aligned. He experienced this again traveling in California, creating an incredible experience where he could think absolutely nothing and just be. In moments like these, Yann became his passion. He encourages all travelers to reach for this feeling, to belong to that world. The next time you go on a trip, whether it’s by car, by bicycle, by foot, whatever, try to be on the lookout, because in that kind of a moment that Yann experienced, there is nothing but you, the natural elements around you, and feelings of happiness and belonging.</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">How Do I Immerse Myself in a Culture When I Travel?</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Yann Ilunga encourages you to be genuine and to be authentically yourself when you travel, because that is the foundation on which you can build great relationships when you travel. You can form strong, intense friendships when you travel by putting yourself out there. You have to be vulnerable, to be open, to step outside your comfort zone, in order to connect with amazing people all over the world. Yann shares stories of being in Ireland, where, for no particular reason, he changed his plans, got in a car, and went in the opposite direction from what he planned. What he saw and who he met were incredible and unexpected, because it feels amazing to do something unpredictable, and to take a chance on that experience. Yann is in Finland now, and encourages travelers to immerse themselves in a culture in order to get all the tools that you’ll need to learn everything about that place and to become a part of that culture. Six years ago, Yann camped around Europe for two months; he believes camping is a form of travel that allows you to experience a location at a deeper level. Yann invites everybody listening who has never been camping before to try camping at least once, because camping not only allows you to really be in your own element, but it also allows you to see a different side of wherever you’re camping and traveling to. Yann strongly encourages engaging in the world around you as deeply as you can manage, and maybe even a little deeper than that.</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Sharing Your Travel Experiences with the World</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Yann Ilunga is one of the best in the biz when it comes to building travel blogs, vlogs, or anything of the sort. Starting something like that can seem daunting, but it is, in fact, manageable. This is a way to share your experiences with the world. Is there something you’re keeping to yourself that, if shared in a more public form, could be interesting, entertaining, informative, or helpful? If so, Yann encourages you to get started right away, to just get started and do it for your own sake. Publish a blog post whenever you want, record a video whenever you want, but, at some point, try to develop a plan and organize a routine. The more structure you give yourself, the more you help yourself form the bigger picture and the message you’re trying to share with the world, and it helps you overall with building your audience, with marketing, with clarifying your plan. It’s about getting it started and keeping it going. He shares a whole bunch more helpful tips, and encourages everyone to get in touch with him if they want help and, if they don’t, to just get started on their own. Yann also encourages listeners to go back and listen to Hayden’s first episode from his first season and realize that he hasn’t always been this good, and that he’s on a journey just like everyone else.</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Links and References</span></h2> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Come visit our</span> <a href= "http://www.patreon.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Patreon page</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at: hayden@backpackdigital.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow us on</span> <a href= "http://www.facebook.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Facebook</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">,</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Twitter</span></a> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">and</span> <a href= "http://www.instagram.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Instagram</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href= "http://www.codycrabb.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website:</span> <a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Works By N.L. Mello</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">You can buy</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Venus</span></em> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">on paperback or Kindle on</span> <a href= "http://amzn.to/2meVEJc"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Amazon</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;">Visit Yann on his website and ask him any question you’d like at <a href= "https://www.yannilunga.com/welcome-page/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">YannIlunga.com</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> </ul>Listen:

S5E6: How WiFi Sprung Me from a Russian Prison - Juliana Dever: Actress | Russophile | Traveler<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Can a person sustain their life on their passions? Can you do what you love and live off of it, too? It’s the perfect road to go down, and one that travelers often find themselves seeking. Juliana Dever has found the path. A travel blogger and an actress from the television series</span> <em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Castle</span></em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">, Juliana has thrown herself into world traveling and drawing experiences from her fears. When she’s not acting, she’s traveling, testing her limits. A self-proclaimed Russophile, Juliana Dever has had a fascination with Russia since childhood. She wants to act and travel, and has found a way to maintain this lifestyle, doing what she truly loves. Keeping that life of travel up is possible, and Juliana can prove it. “If you never meet a stranger,” Juliana says, “then that’s all they’ll ever be to you.” The world is your oyster (and to Juliana, Russia is the pearl).</span></p> <p><a href= "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/travel-stories-podcast-immersive/id1097413901?mt=2&ls=1"> <img class="alignnone wp-image-729 size-full" src= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/iTunesButtonOPTIMIZED.png" alt="Subscribe to the inspiring travel podcast on iTunes" width= "150" height="55" /></a><a href= "http://subscribeonandroid.com/travelstoriespodcast.libsyn.com/rss"><img class="alignnone wp-image-728 size-full" src= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/androidbuttonOPTIMIZED.png" alt="Subscribe to the inspiring travel podcast on Android" width= "150" height="54" /></a></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">How WiFi Sprung Me from a Russian Prison</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The second time Juliana Dever went to Russia, it was as part of a language class. She was given the option to stay with a Russian family, which she took, it being a great opportunity and all. She had visions of laughing around a dinner table, speaking Russian; her reality, though, was a young man who spoke absolutely no English, herself, who spoke very little Russian, and nobody else. Already in a confusing situation, she was with this young man who was very much immersed in that bachelor lifestyle: keeping to himself, leaving out pasta and ketchup for dinner, which was a rocky start to Juliana’s stay. However, the chaos of the experience culminated in her getting locked in her bedroom one day with no way to contact her host. A bit of WiFi, a well-timed email to her friend Rachel, and some frantic Googling helped her survive.</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Why Should I Travel to Russia?</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Juliana Dever is a self-proclaimed Russophile, and it shows in how she talks about Russia and her time there. Juliana is lived in Russia twice, the first time being for a couple of months in the winter, training with the Moscow Art Theatre. Growing up, Juliana was incredibly and inexplicably attracted to Russia, which didn’t make a ton of sense for her as a little girl growing up in rural Missouri. She considered the idea that she might be a reincarnated member of the Romanov family; after she went to Russia, made peace with it, and released it, she felt as though she was able to move on. For Juliana, Russia was like a painting in her head before she actually went. When she got there, though, all of a sudden, it crystallized into a glowing, beautiful, mythical place that hardly seemed real to her. Russia was what dreams were made of, for her. The smells, the sights, the sounds, the tastes - all are so hard to put into words, but they make up what Juliana loves most about Russia and about travel.</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">How Do You Make a Living Doing What You Love?</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Juliana Dever believes that travel is about being in the moment. There is a lot of crossover between her interests - travel and acting - and thinks that these both lend a lot of credibility to that belief. If you can completely open yourself up to experiencing a story, as well as to telling a story, then you open yourself up to travel. Stories are the way that people connect. Juliana exemplifies this by sharing a story of her dance-off with Rolf Potts a couple summers ago in Paris. Juliana loves to travel, to build these experiences, to make these connections and tell these stories. “I’m not selling anything,” says Juliana, “except for embracing the fear and getting out there and traveling.” She tells about how her natural progression from a love of travel led into her becoming a travel blogger, a process that has been about enthusiasm and fear for her. Fear is her motivating factor, because she knows that experiences are better than the fears that try to stop her. She is more interested in confronting fears than she is in conquering them. Hayden and Juliana encourage stepping out of your comfort zone and utilizing your vulnerability; this can lead to experiences that you’re proud of and incredible stories you can share.</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Links and References</span></h2> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Come visit our</span> <a href= "http://www.patreon.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Patreon page</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at: hayden@backpackdigital.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow us on</span> <a href= "http://www.facebook.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Facebook</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">,</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Twitter</span></a> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">and</span> <a href= "http://www.instagram.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Instagram</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href= "http://www.codycrabb.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website:</span> <a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Works By N.L. Mello</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">You can buy</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Venus</span></em> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">on paperback or Kindle on</span> <a href= "http://amzn.to/2meVEJc"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Amazon</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Check out Juliana Dever’s website,</span> <a href= "https://cleverdeverwherever.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CleverDever Wherever</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Visit Juliana Dever on Instagram at</span> <a href= "https://www.instagram.com/cleverdever/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">cleverdever</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Send Juliana Dever a Tweet at</span> <a href= "https://twitter.com/CleverDever"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@CleverDever</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;">Pop in and chat with Juliana Dever on Facebook at <a href= "https://www.facebook.com/juliana.dever"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Juliana Dever</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> </ul>Listen:

S5E5: Lessons from Japanese Vegetables - Amanda Kendle: Not A Ballerina | Thinker | Traveler<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Travel changes a person. Adapting to an entirely new culture and people not only alters the traveler while they live in that culture, but also changes them irrevocably when they return home. Getting used to the world around you is an important travel step, and one Amanda Kendle is intimately familiar with. Amanda lived in three foreign countries during her twenties, and is the master of slow travel. During her lifetime, she’s developed a travel mentality that can be summed up in one word: “thoughtful.” She fosters the more cerebral aspect of travel, using her thoughts to rationalize and relate to her experience. Host of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast, Amanda shares her thoughts on reverse culture shock, cultural adaptation, and returning home.</span></p> <p> </p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href= "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/travel-stories-podcast-immersive/id1097413901?mt=2&ls=1"> <img class="alignnone wp-image-729 size-full" src= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/iTunesButtonOPTIMIZED.png" alt="Subscribe to the inspiring travel podcast on iTunes" width= "150" height="55" /></a><a href= "http://subscribeonandroid.com/travelstoriespodcast.libsyn.com/rss"><img class="alignnone wp-image-728 size-full" src= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/androidbuttonOPTIMIZED.png" alt="Subscribe to the inspiring travel podcast on Android" width= "150" height="54" /></a></span></h2> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Lessons from Japanese Vegetables</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Amanda once lived in the Kansai region of Japan, and, one day, was given an opportunity to visit this old home again. The only downside, though, was that she was sent with a guide who was to accompany her all week, and she was not the kind of person who liked to travel with others, preferring to do her own thing. As it turned out, her guide was a 68-year-old woman named Mariko who had spent thirty-odd years guiding foreigners around Japan. As such, she had amazing stories to tell, and words of wisdom for everyone. When Mariko and Amanda experienced an earthquake together, and visited the earthquake memorial in Kobe, Amanda learned that Mariko was a survivor. She remembers well what she learned from Mariko and her Rincon vegetables that day: “You have to look through to the future, because that’s the only way to get through life.”</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Slow Travel: Experiencing a New Culture Abroad</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">There is no one utopia in this world; there are good things and bad things about every place you can travel to. Hayden and Amanda talk about the pockets of the world they enjoy traveling to, and how they prefer to look for the reality of a place, beyond the plastic. Hayden enjoys going over to “the other side” for a day. Amanda discusses adapting your travel style to your life, and Hayden shares a well-executed metaphor comparing travel to experiencing a play on stage with the actors. The two of them explore the main differences between passing through somewhere, and living in the place. Amanda discusses the reactions of people around her. The longer she lives in a place, the better she understands it, and she believes that spending a longer time in one space lets you better understand the nuances and quirks of a culture. Truly, travel wouldn’t be the same without the trial and error of learning new cultural experiences - learning what’s rude, what’s not, what’s the correct way to act. Getting over those cultural speed bumps is the best way to adapt to the realities of different places, and immerse yourself in a new culture.</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Coming Home: Adapting to Reverse Culture Shock</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Adapting to and overcoming reverse culture shock is a major part of experiencing slow travel. Returning to somewhere that you’ve lived before and adapting to the culture again after you’ve been traveling to other places is exceedingly difficult. Travel brings growth; it opens your mind, changes you into a new and different person, with different thoughts flourishing. After all that happens, it’s hard to interact with people who are expecting the old you to come back unchanged from traveling, and to slot right back into your old life again. Missing out on years of shared culture and adapting to your new and changed relationships with one another is a long and bumpy road. However, regaining that feeling of belonging that might be missing when you return from travel is possible. Amanda talks about topics like reverse culture shock on her podcast, The Thoughtful Travel Podcast, where she has several guests per episode talking about one specific travel-related topic. They discuss all kinds of things we learn from travel, and reasons that we should travel. She thoughtfully reminds everyone that, much like she once told her grandmother, that she is not a ballerina, and she shares this pearl of wisdom: “Whatever excuses you are making, get over the excuses, and get out there. Go traveling. Life’s too short not to. The more people travel, the more we can deal with cultural differences. If we all travel, we can all save the world.”</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Links and References</span></h2> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Come visit our</span> <a href= "http://www.patreon.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Patreon page</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at: hayden@backpackdigital.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow us on</span> <a href= "http://www.facebook.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Facebook</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">,</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Twitter</span></a> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">and</span> <a href= "http://www.instagram.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Instagram</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href= "http://www.codycrabb.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website:</span> <a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Works By N.L. Mello</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">You can buy</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Venus</span></em> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">on paperback or Kindle on</span> <a href= "http://amzn.to/2meVEJc"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Amazon</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Visit Amanda’s website at</span> <a href= "http://www.notaballerina.com/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Not a Ballerina</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Listen to Amanda’s podcast at</span> <a href= "http://jackrabbit.fm/the-thoughtful-travel-podcast/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">The Thoughtful Travel Podcast</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, both here and wherever you listen to podcasts.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;">Chat with Amanda on Twitter, <a href= "https://twitter.com/amandakendle"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@amandakendle</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> </ul>Listen:

S5E4: The Magic Tree - Derek Loudermilk: Father | Digital Nomad | Traveler<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Can a traveler have a home base? What does stability mean to an adventurer? Is the push-pull siren call of the two different traveling worlds surmountable? Derek Loudermilk, host of The Art of Adventure, answers all of these questions and more, unprompted and in depth. Derek is a father, a digital nomad, and a traveler who believes in the power of dichotomy and travels with his infant son, Axel. An adventurer and a businessman, Derek seeks to help others who have the elusive dream of becoming location-independent. Between the jungles of Bali, his wife’s nesting abilities, and his location independence set of skills, Derek is never far from home.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href= "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/travel-stories-podcast-immersive/id1097413901?mt=2&ls=1"> <img class="alignnone wp-image-729 size-full" src= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/iTunesButtonOPTIMIZED.png" alt="Subscribe to the inspiring travel podcast on iTunes" width= "150" height="55" /></a><a href= "http://subscribeonandroid.com/travelstoriespodcast.libsyn.com/rss"><img class="alignnone wp-image-728 size-full" src= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/androidbuttonOPTIMIZED.png" alt="Subscribe to the inspiring travel podcast on Android" width= "150" height="54" /></a></span></p> <p> </p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Magic Tree</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Derek Loudermilk’s story takes place in the jungles of central Bali, in one of his favorite regions - in the central highlands, in a place called Bedugul. This space is very primal for him, and he loves to spend time up there to connect with nature, which he believes can make a person more creative, confident, and self-aware. During one afternoon walk in the jungles, Derek experienced a surprising connection with nature: upon entering a clearing with an ancient, massive tree, and placing his hands on the tree, he got an electro-emotional shock. He says the tree was trying to tell him something. When he put his hands on the tree again, it happened a second time, with Derek experiencing a flood of emotions, sweating, and crying. What happened when he was given time alone with the tree would change Derek’s life from thereon out, as well as his work and his further wellbeing.</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Best of Both Worlds: Travel Edition</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Hayden met Derek Loudermilk when they both guested on The Budget-Minded Traveler, and Hayden realized how interesting, curious, and unique he was. Derek has lived on four continents, and he values traveling slowly and getting to know the culture. Derek is a wholehearted believer in the power of music. He and Hayden share their stories on the topic, with Derek giving a bit of insight into his father and different ways to make music on the go. In regards to his father and the rest of his family, Derek remembers the time he spent camping and traveling as a child. His family wanted to travel somewhere new every year when he was young, which led to his love of exploration, which he now wishes to pass onto his infant son, Axel, whom he travels with now. Axel is a zen child who likes to travel, which leads Hayden and Derek to explore the effects of traveling from infancy on a person. Derek believes in showing Axel the best of both worlds. People’s lives can change in a single moment and take them on a new track in life, a new direction, and traveling can help people discover their own self-identity. Saying yes to opportunities can open doors to potential paths, but saying no can create a permanence that allows you stability; this dichotomy, Derek says, is an interesting push-pull that can be necessary to create the life you want to live and to get stuff done. Going on your own hero’s journey and experiencing and learning and growing is a path only you can take for yourself; nobody else can take it for you.</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">How Can I Gain Location Independence?</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Derek is the host of The Art of Adventure, being an adventurer himself. Hayden believes adventurers are the types of travelers with the best stories. Derek remembers a bit of advice he once received: “You’re an adventurer, just do it.” Opening yourself up to new opportunities and thinking outside of the mundane can create an adventurer out of you in seconds. Looking at options outside of the box, taking these ideas and making it so, will give you journeys you never could have anticipated. Nothing is impossible; everything that exists has come from someone just giving some odd idea a try. For example, location independence, which Derek lives, is its own unique idea and path in life. It grants him location freedom, letting him work from wherever he wants, and so travel wherever he wants. If you want this, too, you can make location independence your business. To learn more about anything, you just need to find someone who is in the place you want to be in and ask them for guidance. In regards to location independence, Derek offers free thirty-minute strategy sessions. If you send him an email (his address is listed below, in Links and References), you can schedule a time to jump on a call with him. Location independence and a new path in life is just a phone call away.</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Links and References</span></h2> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Come visit our</span> <a href= "http://www.patreon.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Patreon page</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at:</span> <a href= "mailto:hayden@backpackdigital.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">hayden@backpackdigital.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow us on</span> <a href= "http://www.facebook.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Facebook</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">,</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Twitter</span></a> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">and</span> <a href= "http://www.instagram.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Instagram</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href= "http://www.codycrabb.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website:</span> <a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Works By N.L. Mello</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">You can buy</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Venus</span></em> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">on paperback or Kindle on</span> <a href= "http://amzn.to/2meVEJc"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Amazon</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Email Derek Loudermilk at</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href= "mailto:derek@derekloudermilk.com">derek@derekloudermilk.com</a></span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;">Visit Derek Loudermilk’s website at <a href="http://derekloudermilk.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">The Art of Adventure.</span></a></li> </ul>Listen:

S5E3: Michoacán: Don't Go There (You'll Die) - Amie & Matt Leichtfuss: Vloggers | Surfers | Travelers<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Letting the path ahead of you lead the way is a degree of control that some people struggle to let go of. Amie and Matt Leichtfuss encourage this degree of trial-and-error, though. On any adventure, letting the details reveal themselves as your journey unfolds can bring the most authentic experiences a traveler can experience. In telling their story, Michoacán: Don't Go There (You'll Die), they prove just how valuable that can be. Traveling with their dog, six surfboards, and a travel vlog, Amie and Matt let trial-and-error dictate their path, the details revealing themselves each step of the way.</span></p> <p><a href= "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/travel-stories-podcast-immersive/id1097413901?mt=2&ls=1"> <img class="alignnone wp-image-729 size-full" src= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/iTunesButtonOPTIMIZED.png" alt="Subscribe to the inspiring travel podcast on iTunes" width= "150" height="55" /></a><a href= "http://subscribeonandroid.com/travelstoriespodcast.libsyn.com/rss"><img class="alignnone wp-image-728 size-full" src= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/androidbuttonOPTIMIZED.png" alt="Subscribe to the inspiring travel podcast on Android" width= "150" height="54" /></a></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Michoacán: Don't Go There (You'll Die)</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In their story, Michoacán: Don't Go There (You'll Die), Amie and Matt tell of a time when they were traveling over a long bridge when they first saw the sign: Bienvenidos a Michoacán. Michoacán is a Mexican area known for its heavy drug activity; because of this, it is often avoided by travelers. Amie and Matt, however, wanted to experience the area for themselves, as they are not ones to let anyone stop them from doing anything. Inspired by</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">In Search of Captain Zero</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">, they were looking for some good waves. They started to run out of fuel, though, which wracked their nerves; they hadn’t found a station to stop at, so they pushed on through the jungle. They saw something on the road ahead that completely threw them for a loop and began to terrify them, but what would actually happen was something they could never have anticipated.</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Can I Go on a Road Trip with My Dog and My Travel Vlog?</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Amie and Matt Leichtfuss are from The Traveling Together Journal, a travel vlog which some of you may have seen on YouTube. The two of them are travel bloggers, travel vloggers, surfers, and amateur engineers. They are presently in Central America, because they saved up to do a big road trip together with their dog. They started in Maui, then to California for a full-size pickup to drive all the way to Panama - along with their six surfboards, their masseuse table, their spearguns, and a collection of other odd objects. They travel with Jaeger, their mixed lab dog, who has been an interesting addition and brought them to a strange little Mexican town when he needed a veterinarian. Powering them on their voyage is solar power, which provides them with the power to keep their refrigerator running, to run a fan at night, and to run LED lights. Their idea of trial-and-error, which helped them hotwire their solar power, sustains them throughout their trip.</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Making Travel Decisions and Starting Your Journey</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Deciding on a trip is not an easy task. It was overwhelming for Amie and Matt to think of everything they would want to do and everywhere they would want to go before they left, so, instead, they decided to play it day-by-day. While they’re maybe a couple of spots ahead, they’re always winging it. Amie recommends that, if you’re thinking of planning any big, long-term travel, don’t overplan; just give yourself the basics, because the details come as you go. She and Matt give a few helpful tips on what to do along your trip to take care of business. They do trial-and-error in this regard, as well, as they take their time making it to Panama. Their travel vlog, too, deals with trial-and-error, this visual record of their travel memories. They started it because, if nothing else, it would give them watchable home videos, and possibly a way to generate income to allow them to follow their dreams and continue traveling - and maybe share some trash with the world as they went. The decisions found themselves along the journey.</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Links and References</span></h2> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Come visit our</span> <a href= "http://www.patreon.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Patreon page</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at: hayden@backpackdigital.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow us on</span> <a href= "http://www.facebook.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Facebook</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">,</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Twitter</span></a> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">and</span> <a href= "http://www.instagram.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Instagram</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href= "http://www.codycrabb.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website:</span> <a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Works By N.L. Mello</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">You can buy</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Venus</span></em> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">on paperback or Kindle on</span> <a href= "http://amzn.to/2meVEJc"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Amazon</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow The Traveling Together Journal on</span> <a href= "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1lbODyUJlK0Ll7xJZ7ggSg"><span style="font-weight: 400;"> YouTube</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Visit Amie and Matt’s website, The Traveling Together Journal,</span> <a href="http://www.thetravelingtogetherjournal.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">here</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> </ul>Listen:

S5E2: Secret Havana - Rachel Rudwall: Explorer | Motivator | Traveler<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Are you enough? The answer, no matter how you feel in any particular moment, is always a resounding “yes.” Rachel Rudwall believes that every person is “enough” to start an adventure, that stories are born from the unexpected, and that childlike wonder has a place in the life of a traveler. Her optimistic outlook on life and her love of worldwide connections are a breath of fresh air in the travel world. With a travel story from Cuba and a bright personality, Rachel gives us a story and an interview to jumpstart our own travels.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href= "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/travel-stories-podcast-immersive/id1097413901?mt=2&ls=1"> <img class="alignnone" src= "http://www.ant-workshop.com/img/iTunesButton.png" alt="" width= "147" height="54" /></a><a href= "http://subscribeonandroid.com/travelstoriespodcast.libsyn.com/rss"><img class="alignnone" src= "http://www.cincopa.com/media-platform/runtime/itunes/subscribe-button-android.png" alt="" width="147" height="53" /></a></span></p> <p> </p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Secret Havana</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Rachel brings a travel story all the way from Havana, from the moment she realized that the whole world would open up to her the moment she recognized that other people existed. She was walking down the street in Cuba when she was struck by the impulse to tell a woman she liked her hat. After acting on this impulse, their conversation soon evolved into this stranger taking them to see some sweet street art. On the way, they encounter a festival, amazing music, a celebration of a symbol of the revolution. This leads into a store, then to a ramshackle Havana building to buy a special item from a strange apartment. Their host told them all about her life, and helped them to explore the deepest parts of her world. Rachel’s experience never would have happened if she hadn’t commented on a stranger’s hat. Rachel believes you will never truly know someone or have a genuine experience unless you truly get to know the people.</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Power of Storytelling</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Every experience is either a good experience, or a good story later on. Rachel and Hayden discuss not being able to predict what any journey will bring you, and Rachel adds on how she likes to be surprised, moved, taught, and connected to others in her travels. They talk about the different archetypes of travelers, and how confidence and vulnerability, working in tandem, can bring about the greatest experiences of all. Rachel’s spirit for adventure began and was fostered in the midwestern United States, where mountains and oceans only existed on television and children like her found pleasure in the little journeys she took. She thinks it’s important to bring that childlike wonder and curiosity into your everyday adult life, rather than over-thinking and limiting yourself from exploring unplanned, pure experiences. She tells Hayden that stories are born from bad or unexpected things happening to you as a traveler; stories, she says, give us everything that might be a building blood for our lives. Storytelling enables us to see where we exist in our own lives, and in the universe. When you explore what is natural and real and inherent to life, you choose to leave behind what is familiar and instead have to listen to what your body tells you, because that animal instinct is all the familiarity you have left. The risk, however, is worth it; after all, what’s the worst that could happen?</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">You Are Enough: Do I Have the Potential to Travel?</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Rachel Rudwall is an advocate of the concept of being “enough.” Many people believe that they are not good enough, not prepared enough, not ‘enough’ enough. Rachel thinks, though, that people are always prepared. You may not be in a place where you’re perfectly prepared, perfectly good, perfectly anything - but you are always enough. You are enough to start your journey. You are enough to put yourself out there. You are, Rachel says, capable; you will learn. You can do this. You are enough. Every person has an innate potential. Rachel is all about people and planet. Anything you can do to share experiences and love, Rachel believes, is what you should be doing. The world is scary and divided right now, but it doesn’t need to be in every realm. You can adjust your own sphere and make the world a little closer and brighter if you are willing to connect. You are enough to bridge that gap.</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Links and References</span></h2> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Come visit our</span> <a href= "http://www.patreon.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Patreon page</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at: hayden@backpackdigital.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow us on</span> <a href= "http://www.facebook.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Facebook</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">,</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Twitter</span></a> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">and</span> <a href= "http://www.instagram.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Instagram</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href= "http://www.codycrabb.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;"><a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/">Works By N.L. Mello</a></span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;">You can buy <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Venus</span></em> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">on paperback or Kindle on</span> <a href= "http://amzn.to/2meVEJc"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Amazon</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> </ul>Listen:

S5E1 - Kinga Philipps - Swimming in Shark Soup<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Kinga loves sharks, so she went to Isla Mujeres, where whale sharks gather periodically in an afuera. She sailed the rough seas to the afuera, where she encountered one of the greatest scenes of her life. She could see the whale sharks’ dorsal fins, the manta rays swimming with them, and so she jumped into the water with her GoPro. The manta rays spun around her; the whale sharks swam around; she felt as though she was swimming in shark soup. Just then, the GoPro died, and Kinga had to be innovative on fixing her problem in order to document the experience. Between her GoPro, her phone, and her own two eyes, Kinga had to find a way to keep her memory for the rest of her life. What she discovered, though, was how to be properly present in her moment as it happened, leading to her best-ever travel experience - all while she was swimming in shark soup.</span></p> <p><a href= "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/travel-stories-podcast-immersive/id1097413901?mt=2&ls=1"> <img class="alignnone" src= "http://www.ant-workshop.com/img/iTunesButton.png" alt="" width= "147" height="54" /></a><a href= "http://subscribeonandroid.com/travelstoriespodcast.libsyn.com/rss"><img class="alignnone" src= "http://www.cincopa.com/media-platform/runtime/itunes/subscribe-button-android.png" alt="" width="147" height="53" /></a></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Links and References</span></h2> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Come visit our</span> <a href= "http://www.patreon.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Patreon page</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at: hayden@backpackdigital.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow us on</span> <a href= "http://www.facebook.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Facebook</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">,</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Twitter</span></a> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">and</span> <a href= "http://www.instagram.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Instagram</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href= "http://www.codycrabb.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website:</span> <a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Works By N.L. Mello</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">You can buy</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Venus</span></em> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">on paperback or Kindle on</span> <a href= "http://amzn.to/2meVEJc"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Amazon</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Visit Kinga’s page on The Travel Channel - take a walk on</span> <a href= "http://www.travelchannel.com/shows/the-wild-side-with-kinga-philipps"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">The Wild Side.</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Become a</span> <a href= "http://sharkallies.com/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Shark Ally</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">with Kinga.</span></li> </ul>Listen:

Kinga Philipps - Adventurer | Shark Lover | Traveler<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">What does it mean to explore your senses? What does a sense do for a person when they travel? Can you bottle your experiences and bring them home with you? Kinga Philipps, an adventurer currently living in Malibu with a passion for all things aquatic, discusses these points and more with Hayden. The host of The Wild Side with Kinga Philipps on the Travel Channel, Kinga talks mystery, senses, history, and sharks, the last of which she touches on with love and anger.</span></p> <p> </p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href= "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/travel-stories-podcast-immersive/id1097413901?mt=2&ls=1"> <img class="alignnone" src= "http://www.ant-workshop.com/img/iTunesButton.png" alt="" width= "147" height="54" /></a><a href= "http://subscribeonandroid.com/travelstoriespodcast.libsyn.com/rss"><img class="alignnone" src= "http://www.cincopa.com/media-platform/runtime/itunes/subscribe-button-android.png" alt="" width="147" height="53" /></a></span></h2> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Why Do Humans Travel?</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Kinga believes that people love mystery, and that they are fascinated by what they cannot explain. Humans, she says, pursue what they cannot fully understand. Things that have terrified people over the ages have also intrigued and fascinated them, luring them in and making them try things they never would otherwise. This drive to go into the unknown is what pushes Kinga to challenge herself and to trigger personal growth through herself through travel. Her parents ingrained in her a spirit of adventure and of seeking something new, which became her driving force in adulthood. Through changing up her routines, following her own compass, and living by a Jack London credo, Kinga brings new experiences to herself every day, which are the greatest moments of her life.</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Exploring Your Senses and Memories</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Exploring your senses when you travel grounds you in the moment. It gives you a solid experience as a traveler, because your senses make something inherently magical go off inside of you. Hayden and Kinga search for a name for the feeling of being in a strange place, coming into your five senses, and realizing how present you are. Kinga offers tips to trigger your own memories, like bringing a scent along with you from home so that you can train yourself to attach memories to scents. Senses were designed to keep humans alive, but they can also bring you back to your greatest moments when you experience them again in the future. Places have an energy that fills you when you’re there; you can jump into other lives, have new experiences, build your memories, and bring them back later, when it’s all said and done. Unique senses can bring memories crashing back.</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Advocating for Sharks and Worldwide Animal Welfare</span></h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Kinga is a member of and advocate for Shark Allies, an organization designed to protect our oceans and the sharks that live in them. Shark Allies founder and Kinga’s mentor, Stefanie Brendl, is a shark expert that Kinga met by bidding on her on eBay and taking her to lunch, which evolved into creating “action buttons” on shark conservation. Kinga discusses how shark fins are used unnecessarily as a status symbol, how brutally the fins are taken, and how she and Shark Allies fight to stop this from happening. In a fit of anger, she and Hayden want people to do their research and be aware; Kinga believes that people, at their core, are good, and want to do good. Kinga tells the audience that the experience of going out, stepping out of routine, and having magical moments is vital to travel. She also leaves the call to go out and educate yourself on the welfare of the world’s wildlife, and how their choices affect animals.</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Links and References</span></h2> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Come visit our</span> <a href= "http://www.patreon.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Patreon page</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at: hayden@backpackdigital.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow us on</span> <a href= "http://www.facebook.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Facebook</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">,</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Twitter</span></a> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">and</span> <a href= "http://www.instagram.com/backpackdigital"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Instagram</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href= "http://www.codycrabb.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website:</span> <a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Works By N.L. Mello</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">You can buy</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Venus</span></em> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">on paperback or Kindle on</span> <a href= "http://amzn.to/2meVEJc"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Amazon</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Visit Kinga’s page on The Travel Channel - take a walk on</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href= "http://www.travelchannel.com/shows/the-wild-side-with-kinga-philipps"> The Wild Side.</a></span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;">Become a <a href= "http://sharkallies.com/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Shark Ally</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">with Kinga.</span></li> </ul>Listen:

Unpacking Season Four<p><a href= "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/travel-stories-podcast-immersive/id1097413901?mt=2&ls=1"> <img class="alignnone aligncenter" src= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/itunessubnew.png" alt="" width="200" height="73" /></a> <a href= "http://subscribeonandroid.com/travelstoriespodcast.libsyn.com/rss"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-703 aligncenter" src= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/SubscribeOnAndroidLarge.png" alt="subscribeonandroidlarge" width="200" height="73" /></a></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">In this season four finale of the Travel Stories Podcast, Hayden is joined by Nicole (his writer) and Cody (his composer) to look back over the season, share outtakes, and talk about the upcoming fifth season. They weave through every episode and discuss what they thought about the guests and the stories, bringing in recaps and flashbacks to the highlights of each episode. You’ll remember this season featured Tom Butler, Sarah Miduski, Tania Aebi, Nate Buchanan, Britany Felix, Frank Salas, Leon Logothetis, Ladan Jiracek, Justin Walter, Cody Crabb, and Mike Corey. The gang shares their favorite episodes and moments from this season.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">In their rambling discussions, the gang talks about the same themes that they see cropping up in every episodes, and the vein they see running through all the themes and episodes this season. They talk about what traveling means to them, then start devolving into a conversation about expectations versus reality, making experiences positive or negative, and how this plays into travel. They discuss traveling with children and travel aesthetics. The gang has fun together, bantering and joking around, as well as dragging each other and wholeheartedly (and savagely) mocking one another.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The team also discusses the unreality of thinking they have actual listeners and actual fans. In their conversation, they revisit past guests and fans, like Billy from last season and what he’s been up to. Hayden brings some outtakes to share, as well - such as one where Hayden and Nicole roast Cody when his connection dropped during an episode. Their big finish features discussing what’s coming up in season five.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Coming up next season we have a name change: we are becoming Backpack Digital. Our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram handles, as well as our website name, are all changing to backpackdigital to reflect this. We’re also expanding to include more than just podcasts. We have more inspiring travel-related content coming your way, so stay tuned! The podcast itself is changing, as well: the intro is changing, we’re getting new artwork, and the format is going to be split up. We’ll break up the interview and the story into two separate episodes for easy listening. We’re also releasing a book during season five: Nicole’s novel</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Venus</span></em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">, a novel about two young women who go on an adventure, searching for an escape and for a way to discover who they are as people. Along the way, they figure out who they are, they fall in love, and they learn that the journey is sometimes better than the destination.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">If you stay tuned all the way until the end of the episode, you can find some bonus outtakes of Hayden being a mushmouth. We look forward to bringing you forward to season five come late March. Have a good break!</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at:</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href="http://www.codycrabb.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website:</span> <a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Works By N.L. Mello</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Join the mailing list at:</span> <a href= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/list/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Mailing List</span></a></li> </ul>Listen:

S4E12: Tom Butler - ‘On the Right Track’<p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;"><a href= "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/travel-stories-podcast-immersive/id1097413901?mt=2&ls=1"> <img class="alignnone" src= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/itunessubnew.png" alt="" width="200" height="73" /></a> <a href= "http://subscribeonandroid.com/travelstoriespodcast.libsyn.com/rss"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-703" src= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/SubscribeOnAndroidLarge.png" alt="subscribeonandroidlarge" width="200" height= "73" /></a></span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Once upon a time, a wise old Jedi claimed that “fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering.” He stopped after suffering, though, so we have to wonder: what does suffering lead to? Is there a chance that suffering can lead to new possibilities? From suffering, there are opportunities for growth, for change, and for evolution. Suffering can be the catalyst for so many qualities necessary in a travel, and, sometimes, all that you need to do to obtain those qualities is to “rough it” when traveling. Tom Butler makes his triumphant return to discuss the benefits of “roughing it,” as well as his time in China.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <hr /> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Tom returns to Hayden to talk about his life since he last visited in season three, as well as how he has begun to settle down with his family, which includes his three-year-old daughter and will soon include another child, coming this summer. He talks about how the logistics of traveling have had to shift since he has started adding children to his family, since the travel bug has not been dissuaded regardless of how many kids he has. Tom also discusses how to manage your budget and finances when you travel.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The highlight of Tom’s episode is in his story, based in China and given the alluring title of: “On the Right Track.” He talks about his journey with his family from Shiyan to Beijing, how they decided to stop over in Pingyao, but also decided to take the most overpacked train directly following Chinese New Year. What followed was a lesson in not overbooking trains, and in trusting those around you when something goes wrong.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Tom also discusses with Hayden cultural divides, differences from location to location, and how even the slightest deviation from your usual routine can count as a travel experience. They also continue their thread of how “toughing it” can make an experience that much more powerful and interesting to go through and learn from, as well as how to follow your own flexibility when scheduling and spending on a trip. When it comes right down to it, though, you will never know if you don’t give it a shot; “do or do not - there is no try.”</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">0:57 - In the last episode of season four, Hayden re-introduces Tom Butler, one of our most popular guests from season three. Tom has been around the world with his wife and is starting to settle down with a family, with his second child on the way this summer, but the travel bug has never left him.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">8:05 - Hayden and Tom discuss the price spectrum of traveling and how to manage your budget and your finances when you travel. Tom mentions how your own comfort and experiences can play into your financial decisions, as well as how flexible you can be in your scheduling and your spending.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">15:27 - Hayden shares a story of his time in Vietnam, which Tom relates to the idea that, if you go through a bit of a rough patch, you can have an interesting learning experience. They discuss how the business of “toughing it” can make a journey that much more powerful.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">20:27 - Tom starts telling his China-based story, which he has charmingly titled: “On the Right Track,” a title while you will understand once you listen to the story.</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Tom was traveling from Shiyan to Beijing, a lengthy journey, so he decided to stop for a couple of nights in Pingyao over Chinese New Year. He had not considered how many people would be traveling home after Chinese New Year had ended, and ended up on a dangerously overpacked train. On the train, they encountered a young girl who had been standing for hours on end who gave them directions on their journey.</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">26:42 - Hayden and Tom break down the six-minute story of his ten-hour journey. They talk about how immobile he was, and the cultural divides that lead to variations like that. They talk about the differences from place to place, and how even the slightest step outside your usual routine is a new journey and an adventure.</span></li> </ul> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at:</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href="http://www.codycrabb.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;"><a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/">Works By N.L. Mello</a></span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;">Join the mailing list at: <a href= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/list/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Mailing List</span></a></li> </ul>Listen:

S4E11: Sarah Miduski - ‘Unexpected Wildlife’<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Knowing that you’re able to travel - able to afford it, able to hop on a plane and end up halfway across the world only hours later - can grant you a kind of appreciation you never realized before. Living in a place where travel is possible, where going on unprecedented journeys is possible, where listening to travel story podcasts is possible, is the ideal travel situation. How can you live a life of possibility, and how can you utilize the life of possibility that you have been given? Sarah Miduski of Obligatory Traveler joins Hayden to talk about life, health, and the pursuit of graciousness in travel.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Sarah is a self-proclaimed “fangirl” of the show as well as a blogger, writer, and storyteller at Obligatory Traveler. She has three chronic illnesses, a rare heart condition, and an unwavering sense of adventure and wanderlust. She joins Hayden to talk about breaking into writing, branding herself, and how she handles her chronic health issues in regards to her travel desires. She reconciles her “medical mess,” as she calls it, with her adventures.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Hayden discusses with Sarah the importance of hindsight and looking back on your travels once you have experience to look back with. Sarah also talks about her list of where she wants to go and what she wants to do, which she has on her website. She talks about her epiphany surrounding her own mortality in her youth, and talks about how her realization of her mortality led her to her life of travel.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Sarah shares her story, a Panama-based tale that she has ambiguously titled ‘Unexpected Wildlife.’ She spins a yarn about the time she was desperately searching for a sloth on her trip, but instead encountered an entirely different kind of fauna in the forest. She tried to escape unscathed, but, unfortunately, she saw way more than she ever intended to see that day. Luckily, she did live through the encounter, and took from it an important lesson: always expect the unexpected.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In the modern traveler’s life, it is expected that they live a life that they ought to be grateful for. Travelers can tap into the idea of gratitude to access a deeper level to their journey, as well as utilizing this gratitude in their traveling. Hayden and Sarah discuss the theory of the “space between,” meaning the space between stimulus and response, with positives and negatives, as well as control when traveling. Travelers have an obligation to themselves to express gratitude for their situations, and to access their gratitude for their adventures.</span></p> <p> </p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">0:56 - Hayden introduces Sarah Miduski, a fan of the show and a blogger, writer, and storyteller at Obligatory Traveler; she has three chronic illnesses, a rare heart condition, and a strong sense of adventure. She discusses how she broke into writing on a blog, as well as how she got the “Obligatory” name, and how that ties in with her traveling.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">5:35 - Sarah talks about how she handles her self-proclaimed “medical mess” (her chronic health issues) with her travel desires and circumstances.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">11:00 - Sarah shares her story, taking place in Panama and intriguingly and ambiguously titled: ‘Unexpected Wildlife.’</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Sarah was desperately searching for her first glance of a sloth when she came to the ideal Panamanian bridge. She knew she had to be silent in order to see wildlife; when she followed these rules, she found a cement pool, but what she found in the pool was an entirely unexpected kind of fauna. They had to come up with a scheme of sorts in order to escape unscathed. Unfortunately, they were spotted, and began to panic. They did get to live through the encounter, and they learned always to expect the unexpected.</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">18:17 - Hayden and Sarah unpack her story of the truly unexpected, which Hayden certainly was not expecting to hear. He also explores the glory and importance of hindsight when looking back on your travel stories with the lens of experience.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">21:12 - Hayden asks Sarah about her list; she explains the list - of where she wants to go and what she wants to do - and how she built it. She discusses her criteria and how they come up with the list by never limiting themselves. She also talks about her epiphany regarding her mortality and how that played into her travel evolution.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">25:25 - Hayden brings up the concept of gratitude and how travelers can tap into the idea of gratitude, and how they can utilize that in their traveling. He and Sarah talk about the theory called “space between,” weighing the space between stimulus and response and how that can play into the positives, negatives, and control issues of travel.</span> </li> </ul> <ul> <li>Check out our website at: <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/">Travel Stories Podcast Online</a></li> </ul> <ul> <li>Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at: <a href= "mailto:hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</a></li> </ul> <ul> <li>Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at: <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</a></li> </ul> <ul> <li>All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website: <a href= "http://www.codycrabb.com">CodyCrabb.com</a></li> </ul> <ul> <li>All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website: <a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/">Works By N.L. Mello</a></li> </ul> <ul> <li>Join the mailing list at: <a href= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/list/">Mailing List</a></li> </ul> <ul> <li>Visit Sarah’s website at: <a href= "http://www.obligatorytraveler.com/">Obligatory Traveler</a></li> <li>Chat with Sarah on Twitter at: <a href= "https://twitter.com/obligatraveler">@obligatraveler</a></li> </ul>Listen:

S4E10: Tania Aebi - ‘The Fisherman’<p style="text-align: center;"><a href= "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/travel-stories-podcast-immersive/id1097413901?mt=2&ls=1"> <img class="alignnone" src= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/itunessubnew.png" alt="" width="200" height="73" /></a> <a href= "http://subscribeonandroid.com/travelstoriespodcast.libsyn.com/rss"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-703" src= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/SubscribeOnAndroidLarge.png" alt="subscribeonandroidlarge" width="200" height="73" /></a></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Solitude, uncertainty, and unpredictable storms (both physical and metaphorical) are circumstances that every single human being experiences during their lifetime. When you have only yourself and a steadfast belief in luck to rely on, it can be difficult to throw yourself into a situation. If you keep moving forward, though, even the impossible can become possible - and this is especially true when you decide to trust in others and let them help you along your path. Tania Aebi is a living example of the truth behind this.</span></p> <hr /> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">In the late 1980s, starting at age eighteen, Tania Aebi successfully completed a solo circumnavigation of the entire world, making her the first American woman and the youngest person at the time to sail all the way around the world. She wrote the book</span> <em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Maiden Voyage</span></em> <span style="font-weight: 400;">about her experiences, and visits the Travel Stories Podcast to share her stories. She and Hayden discuss her life-changing journey, the methods to her madness, and the importance of her father’s influence in her life.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">In between tales about Tania’s world-traveling cats and their wives, Tania also tells Hayden about the role that preparation needs to take in getting ready to travel. They discuss luck, too, and how you can never know what will happen to you until you take the first step and give something a try. She discusses her “day by day,” “mile by mile” approach to travel, getting from one location to the next. She also talks about her roots and the home she has made in Vermont.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Tania also shares her own travel story, of which she had many to choose from, expertly called “The Fisherman.” She discusses how she had been struggling as she came into port at Sri Lanka, but that the bad luck turned when a fishing boat with two guys approached her. Wary, as this could go one of two ways, Tania accepted the help, and trusted in human nature and in these two individuals to help her. Years later, she received something she had never anticipated as a result of that meeting. She now recalls these encounters as how strong human connections can be, and how important it is to trust in one another.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Traveling around the world is a massive undertaking. However, with a few cats, a couple fishermen in loincloths, a belief in human connections, and faith in luck, Tania Aebi was able to pull off exactly that.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">1:25 - Hayden introduces Tania Aebi, the first American woman and the youngest person to sail around the world, as well as an accomplished author.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">3:32 - Hayden and Tania discuss her epic journey, and her method of taking the trip “mile by mile.” Tania also talks about the influence of her father on her traveling, as well as the importance of the faith he had in her and the role of preparation in her journey.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">9:07 - Tania brings up luck, which Hayden considers something that happens to you. Tania points out that you can never know what will happen until you try, and the luck will come with that. She says her trips are about moving day by day, getting from one location to the next.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">13:01 - Tania starts telling her story, which she gave the name, “The Fisherman,” despite declaring himself to be bad at naming stories.</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">She had been struggling a great deal on her way traveling into Sri Lanka, taking an absurd amount of bad luck coming in. A fishing boat with two guys in loincloths on it, though, came her way, and she knew it would either go one of two ways - but had no idea which way it would go. Years later, she received something as a result of that meeting that she had never anticipated. She remembers these encounters as examples of human connections and trusting in one another.</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">16:35 - Hayden and Tania break down “The Fisherman,” as well as discussing what you do in the moments when you meet someone who you’re not sure if you can trust. Tania also shares the thrilling and purr-fect stories of the cats and their wives who accompanied her on her travels.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">23:19 - Tania discusses the place she found twenty-two years ago in Vermont, the place that she comes back to that she now calls home. Hayden brings up the travelers who want roots and a community while they continue to travel.</span></li> </ul> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at:</span> <a href= "mailto:hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at:</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href="http://www.codycrabb.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website:</span> <a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Works By N.L. Mello</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Join the mailing list at:</span> <a href= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/list/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Mailing List</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out the YouTube video for Nate’s giveaway at:</span> <a href= "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lud_LjpVo00"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Giveaway YouTube Video</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Enter Nate’s giveaway at:</span> <a href= "http://bit.ly/free-lounge-access"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Free Lounge Access</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Visit Tania’s website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.taniaaebi.com/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Tania Aebi</span></a></li> </ul>Listen:

S4E9: Nate Buchanan - ‘The Cave’<p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Learning how to trust is something only you can teach yourself how to do. It can be one of the most important things that you will encounter during travel, but encounter it you must. Who do you trust in this world, though? Can you trust someone you’ve only known for a matter of seconds? How can you trust that you’re going to make the right decision? Hayden introduces Nate Buchanan of Kara and Nate to help him answer these questions and more.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Nate Buchanan is famously from the travel vlog Kara and Nate, being one half of the titular pair - the other half being his wife, Kara. The two of them are looking to travel to 100 countries by 2019. In addition to this, Nate is also an expert in travel hacking. In this episode, Hayden and Nate discuss to plan or not to plan, as well as the importance of being a bucket list maker. They also talk about how Nate became a travel vlogger, and how important accountability and documentation are to his lifestyle and to travel.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Nate’s story is based in the Philippines, and which he has titled, spectacularly and simply titled: ‘The Cave.’ In it, he features the island of Siargao, the concept of motorbikes, an adventure under the sea, and, of course, the titular cave itself. Adventure is lurking around every corner; as Nate proves, you just have to be willing to trust yourself, those around you, and the adventure itself in order to access the deepest reaches of it. Much like Nate and Kara accessed the deepest reaches of the cave.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Hayden, of course, takes advantage of the motorbike portion of the story to weave a tale or two of his own, from his journeys on motorbikes to his adventures in Saigon. Hayden brings up trust in travel, too, and how to know you can trust your own decisions, which Nate relates to his own gut feelings. Nate also shares some travel hacks, as well as what travel hacking is and how even the simplest and least informed of travelers can travel hack.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Trusting in yourself and others is a leap, not a baby step. It takes time to reach the point of being able to trust yourself to trust others and to trust your own gut. A long road though it may be, Kara, Nate, and Hayden are all living proof that it is a doable and, when achieved, worthwhile task. Trust in them. Trust in yourself. Trust in travel.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><a href= "https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/travel-stories-podcast-immersive/id1097413901?mt=2&ls=1"> <img src= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/itunessubnew.png" alt="" /></a> <a href= "http://subscribeonandroid.com/travelstoriespodcast.libsyn.com/rss"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-703" src= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/SubscribeOnAndroidLarge.png" alt="subscribeonandroidlarge" width="200" height= "73" /></a> </p> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">0:57 - Hayden introduces Nate Buchanan, one half of the travel-blogging duo Kara and Nate, a husband-and-wife team looking to travel to 100 countries by 2019. Nate is also an expert in travel hacking.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">3:58 - Hayden and Nate discuss what works for them - planning, or not planning, as well as what plans to stick to while you travel and which plans you can ditch. They also talk about why bucket lists are so important to Nate.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">9:47 - Hayden asks Nate to discuss his and Kara’s vlog and their travel goals. Nate explains how they came to this point, why they wanted to do it, and how they pull it off.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">14:04 - Nate brings up accountability, which Hayden believes is a vital part of not only your travels, but of your lives. They also talk about documenting their life and accessing that nostalgia later.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">17:30 - Nate starts telling his Philippines-based story, spectacularly titled: ‘The Cave.’</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Kara and Nate were visiting Siargao in the Philippines, where they decided to rent a motorbike that they did not know how to operate. Though they did manage to reach their destination, they found a sign that caught their attention and decided to follow the directions for an adventure. This, inevitably, brought them to a cave, where the journey then swept them up and brought them somewhere they could never have anticipated.</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">26:58 - Hayden and Nate break down ‘The Cave’ and how many elements of the story Hayden thinks are so important, starting - of course - with the motorbikes. Hayden takes full advantage of this moment to tell a story of his own.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">30:54 - Hayden brings up the topic of trust, as well as discussing who you should trust during travel and how to know you can trust your own decisions. Nate relates his own feelings of trust to his gut feelings. Again, Hayden takes advantage of this in order to tell another story about himself, from Saigon.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">35:51 - Hayden brings up travel hacking, which Nate appears to be a guru of. Nate offers advice on where to start with travel hacking, what travel hacking means, and what would make a good first ‘hack,’ including what you can do by signing up for just one credit card.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">40:26 - Nate talks about the course he’s developing titled ‘30 Days to Becoming a Travel Hacker,’ where he can share his years of travel hacking knowledge. They then start to talk about mistake fares, which Nate explains for Hayden and the audience.</span></li> </ul> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at:</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href="http://www.codycrabb.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website:</span> <a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Works By N.L. Mello</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Join the mailing list at:</span> <a href= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/list/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Mailing List</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out The Mistake Fare Manual at:</span> <a href="http://learn.karaandnate.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Mistake Fare Manual</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Watch Kara and Nate’s blog at:</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href= "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4ijq8Cg-8zQKx8OH12dUSw">Kara and Nate on YouTube</a></span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;">Check out Nate’s website at: <a href="http://karaandnate.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Kara and Nate</span></a></li> </ul>Listen:

S4E7: Britany Felix - ‘Parisian Roller Coaster of Emotion’<p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Learning how to live a life that is exclusively yours versus the life that you believe you are supposed to live is an essential part of your growth, not just as a traveler, but as a person. Britany Felix has taken a long road to living her life as she wants to, but she has made it all the way to being the person and traveler she wants to be. Her message is to live unconventionally.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Britany joins Hayden from Colorado, at the base of the Rocky Mountains. She talks about compromising on settling down when you travel with others, how to have adventures without traveling very far, and how to live your life the way you want to. Hayden brings up how he creates a checklist in order to decide what he will and will not do. Britany also shares the story of her own life, and how she did research on the life she wanted to live and how she grew to achieve her dreams.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Britany also brings her travel story, the aptly-named “Parisian Roller Coaster of Emotion,” in which she weaves the tale of her first trip out of her home country, to France. While she and her new husband were there, they immediately encountered several unfortunate incidents, then a few positive experiences, in a true roller coaster of highs and lows, ups and downs, a tumultuous ride through their Parisian vacation. Britany used the experience to teach herself how to use the negative emotions that come with such unfortunate events like these ones.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Becoming the person you want to be is a long road, but, if you do not take the first step on the path, you can never reach your destination. Britany is living proof that, with the right research and journey, you can be the traveler - and the person - that you want to be. All you have to do is live a little unconventionally.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">In this episode, Hayden and Britany Felix discuss:</span></p> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Traveling full-time versus traveling part-time. Hayden asks Britany how to compromise on settling down when you travel with partners or other companions.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Finding adventures in the place you grew up in or the place that you were in at the moment. You can travel all over the world, because you never think of the place you are in as being a destination, but everywhere is a foreign place to people who are not from there.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The concept of living your life the way you want to, not the way you are supposed to. Hayden brings up how he makes up a checklist to decide whether or not to do something.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">How to free up your life and to feel the freedom and happiness that adventurers who share their stories, like Britany, feel when they travel.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Traditional ways of living, and how to incorporate your life with your desire to travel. Britany shares her personal story of how she was able to achieve her dream of traveling and adventuring, and how she made herself happy through research.</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Britany recommends</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">The Art of Non-Conformity,</span></em> <span style="font-weight: 400;">by Chris Guillebeau, the book that really sparked the change in her.</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Britany’s story, which takes place in Paris, France, and which she has titled: “Parisian Roller Coaster of Emotion.”</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">In Britany’s story, she traveled out of country for the very first time to France, where she encountered armed security guards, a bomb threat, missing luggage - and that was just in the airport when she first landed. After that, only one thing after another just kept going alternatively wrong and right, taking Britany and her new husband on an emotionally tumultuous ride, all the way through to the very last day of the trip. She sees the trip as a true example of what travel is all about, through the highs and lows and the education the experiences give you.</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">How to take the highs and lows of your travels and turn those experiences into real adventures, as well as how to pull those events into your personality and work them into your further travels. Britany discusses how to deal with negative emotions when traveling.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Britany’s travel podcast, Living Unconventionally. Britany sums up her elevator pitch with her tagline: she interviews people who have ditched their traditional lives to chase their passions around the world. They also discuss her personal life and her own travels.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Group travel, and how Hayden and Britany view traveling solo versus traveling with others. They also talk about how spontaneity, schedules, and appreciation of an adventure can be affected by who you travel with and what your travel plans and research are.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Britany’s upcoming courses, which you can receive the first wave of if you join her Facebook group, Living Unconventionally Community, which you can find linked below, with other ways to find and contact Britany.</span></li> </ul> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at:</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href="http://www.codycrabb.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website:</span> <a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Works By N.L. Mello</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Join the mailing list at:</span> <a href= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/list/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Mailing List</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out Britany’s book recommendation at:</span> <a href="http://chrisguillebeau.com/"><em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">The Art of Non-Conformity</span></em> <span style="font-weight: 400;">by Chris Guillebeau</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Join Britany’s Facebook community at:</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href= "https://www.facebook.com/groups/livingunconventionally/">Living Unconventionally Community</a></span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;">Check out Britany’s website and listen to her podcast at: <a href= "http://livingunconventionally.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Living Unconventionally</span></a></li> </ul>Listen:

S4E6: Frank Salas - ‘The Cancun Kidnapping Scare’<p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Living on the road is the dream, the goal for many, but not for all. Everybody on the planet Earth is wired differently, and those varied wirings apply to every area of life, including travel. Figuring out how to live on the road, though, is a huge step on the way to learning how you, personally, are wired, regardless of your circumstances. Frank Salas, who prefers the title of The Talented Mr. Salas, joins Hayden to discuss the paths available to becoming an entrepreneur and a nomad like he is.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Frank Salas is a serial entrepreneur and a digital nomad, who came from humble beginnings to become the Talented Mr. Salas that he is today. He joins Hayden to talk about how he first started on his path, as well as offering a peek into how he lives day-to-day now that he has reached this point. He also shares how he accomplished what he has achieved, and how commitment and discovery were enormous parts of his evolution. Frank also explores how to make your budget and funding work for your travel adventures.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Frank also comes to share his story, a tale with the appealing title of: “The Cancun Kidnapping Scare.” Frank recounts, in humorous, frightening, and vivid detail, the taxi ride he was taking in Cancun that seemed to go down a terrifying path. Once his driver started saying ominous statements into a walkie talkie, Frank started to panic, forming an escape plan, struggling to find an out. After a miraculous escape, a falling out, a call to his mother, and an incident of stalking, Frank eventually learned a lesson about Cancun.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Starting yourself on the road to travel and adventure is one of the most difficult tasks a person can undertake. That level of commitment is not something taken lightly. Luckily, folks like Frank Salas, who have true “rags to riches” stories and the strength to back up their stories, are here to help those who want to travel find their way onto the right path. Living on the road is not easy to start doing, but, if you are wired for a nomadic life, it is the next best step.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">0:56 - Hayden introduces Frank Salas, serial entrepreneur and digital nomad, who came from humble beginnings to become the Talented Mr. Salas. Frank talks about how he first got the idea to become a digital nomad and the resolution he actually followed through on, as well as giving a look into his lifestyle.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">10:07 - Hayden asks Frank about how he managed to make his digital nomad and traveling life happen. Frank discusses comfort, commitment, discovery, and anxiety related to traveling and starting your adventure.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">16:55 - Frank starts to tell his story, featuring the rather intriguing title, “The Cancun Kidnapping Scare.”</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Frank was on a ride when he realized the driver had locked the doors and gave a terribly ominous message into his walkie talkie. The drivers in the cars next to him were frightening, as well, and Frank automatically started to panic. He executes an entire plan on how to escape, which was nearly thwarted by a phone cable. A call to his mother escalates, the driver of the car will not leave him alone, and Frank learns a lesson about Cancun.</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">24:21 - Hayden and Frank break down Frank’s story, talking about what was going through Frank’s mind when this all went down.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">26:47 - Hayden and Frank explore how you can make the shift to funding yourself on the road. Frank offers some life hacks that apply to budgeted traveling and saving on expenses, as well as tips on becoming a digital nomad and/or an entrepreneur.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">33:14 - To help listeners take the first step, Frank and Hayden offer websites, groups, and opportunities online, all of which can be found in the links below.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">35:52 - Frank leaves the listeners with a final message, telling of his own “rags to riches” story and how he built himself up. He offers inspiration, opportunity, mindset, and a life lesson, all wrapped up in one fantastic bundle of a message.</span></li> </ul> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at:</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href="http://www.codycrabb.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;"><a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/">Works By N.L. Mello</a></span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check us out on Facebook at:</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href= "https://www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast">Travel Stories Podcast</a></span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Join the mailing list at:</span> <a href= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/list/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Mailing List</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Join Frank’s inner circle, the Talent Tribe, on Facebook here at:</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href= "http://bit.ly/talentedone">Talent Tribe</a></span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;">Check out Frank’s Facebook page at: <a href= "https://www.facebook.com/TalentedMrSalas/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Talented Mr. Salas</span></a></li> </ul>Listen:

S4E5: Leon Logothetis - ‘The Ham Sandwich’<p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Allowing yourself to be vulnerable in any situation is not easy, but, in order to make complete connections with others, it can be very necessary. Granting yourself the freedom to be vulnerable gives you a freedom when traveling that is totally unparalleled. Hayden invites Leon Logothetis, an adventurer, motivational speaker, philanthropist, host of the television series </span><em>Amazing Adventures of a Nobody</em><span style="font-weight: 400;">, and author of </span><em>The Kindness Diaries</em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">, to discuss vulnerability and kindness when traveling.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><a href= "http://www.clkmg.com/ahdonlinemarketing/TSPitunessubscribe"><img src="http://travelstoriespodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/itunessubnew.png" alt="" /></a> <a href= "http://subscribeonandroid.com/travelstoriespodcast.libsyn.com/feed"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-703" src= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/SubscribeOnAndroidLarge.png" alt="subscribeonandroidlarge" width="200" height="73" /></a></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Leon’s twin passions are kindness and helping people nurture their inner rebel. He and Hayden discuss that inner rebel and how it can be coaxed out into the open, as well as what drives Leon to be kind and what motivates him to be empathetic to others. Leon also talks about how he puts himself out there when he travels, and how vital that vulnerability is.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Leon also shares his travel story, titled in an excessively British way as: “The Ham Sandwich.” It is accurate in its grimness, as it ominously leads into Leon’s bad omens in Panama and experiences traveling to Ecuador. Besides a rough-and-tumble encounter with the locals, Leon also has a dangerous experience on board a boat that was entirely unexpected, and possibly feature a ham sandwich as an unlikely catalyst. </span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Though making yourself vulnerable is an exceedingly difficult task, it is vital to completing your travel experience. Without that openness and willingness to connect with others, you cannot totally engage with your environments as you travel. Allowing yourself that vulnerability makes both you and your adventures well-rounded.</span></p> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">1:20 - Hayden introduces Leon Logothetis, and the two of them discuss everyone’s inner rebel and how that inner rebel can be nurtured and coaxed out into the open.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">5:43 - Hayden asks Leon about what gives him the drive to commit acts of kindness and what his motivations are. Leon discusses the role that empathy and putting yourself in another’s shoes can play in your life and in your travels.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">9:53 - Leon starts telling his story, ominously and Britishly titled “The Ham Sandwich.”</span> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Leon went on an adventure to Panama, where he immediately had a rough experience with the locals, which he took as a bad omen for things to come. The captain of the ship he then traveled on was too forceful with him regarding their food choices, which Leon tried to sneak around by requesting a ham sandwich. What happened to him afterwards, though, on the way to Ecuador, was dangerous and completely unexpected.</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">14:49 - Hayden and Leon break down Leon’s story, how the story lived up to its title, and how the ham sandwich affected - or did not affect - his journeys in North and South America.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">15:48 - Leon talks to Hayden about how to put yourself out there when traveling, and how being vulnerable and showing that vulnerability is vital when with others in order to completely connect with them.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">20:19 - Leon discusses </span><em>Live, Love, Explore</em><span style="font-weight: 400;">, his new book about discovering the life you were meant to live; he calls the book both a travel memoir and a self-help book.</span></li> </ul> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at: </span><a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at: </span><span style= "font-weight: 400;">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at: </span><a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website: </span><a href= "http://www.codycrabb.com"><span style="font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website: </span><a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Works By N.L. Mello</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Add Hayden on Snapchat to follow his journey through Brazil at: </span><span style= "font-weight: 400;">travelstoriesuk</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check us out on Facebook at: </span><a href= "https://www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast</span></a><br /> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Facebook Live videos are on Tuesdays at 7:00pm GMT/2:00pm EST/11:00am PST.</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Go to Grayl’s website and use the offer code TS25 and get 25% off through the end of November and get hooked up with a purifier at: </span><a href= "http://www.thegrayl.com/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Grayl</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Join the mailing list at: </span><a href= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/list/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Mailing List</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out Leon on YouTube at: </span><a href= "https://www.youtube.com/user/leonlogothetis"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Leon Logothetis</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Leon’s book, </span><em>Live, Love, Explore</em><span style="font-weight: 400;">, is on Amazon at: </span><em><a href= "https://www.amazon.com/Live-Love-Explore-Discover-Traveler/dp/1621453235"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Live, Love, Explore</span></a></em></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out Leon on Facebook at: </span><span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href= "https://www.facebook.com/leonlogothetis/">Leon Logothetis</a></span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><em>Daring Greatly</em><span style="font-weight: 400;"> by Brené Brown can be found here on: </span><a href= "https://www.amazon.com/Daring-Greatly-Courage-Vulnerable-Transforms/dp/1592408419"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Amazon</span></a></li> </ul> <div style="margin-left: 2em;"> </div>Listen:

Happy Holidays from the team at Travel Stories Podcast<p>It's been quite a year for us at Travel Stories Podcast and this rather small episode is merely a thank you to all of our listeners, and the wishing of a happy holiday season, wherever you may be.</p> <p>Let us know what you're doing for Christmas and watch a little bit of each of ours on Facebook at: <a href= "https://www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast">Travel Stories Podcast</a></p> <ul> <li>Check out our website at: <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/">Travel Stories Podcast Online</a></li> <li>Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at: hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</li> <li>Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at: <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</a></li> <li>All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website: <a href= "http://www.codycrabb.com/">CodyCrabb.com</a></li> <li>All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website: <a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/">Works By N.L. Mello</a></li> <li>Check us out on Facebook at: <a href= "https://www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast">Travel Stories Podcast</a> <ul> <li>Facebook Live videos are on Tuesdays at 7:00pm GMT/2:00pm EST/11:00am PST.</li> </ul> </li> <li>Go to Grayl’s website and use the offer code TS25 and get 25% off through the end of November and get hooked up with a purifier at: <a href="http://www.thegrayl.com/">The Grayl</a></li> <li>Join the mailing list at: <a href= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/list/">Mailing List</a></li> </ul> <p> </p>Listen:

S4E4: Ladan Jiracek - ‘Cheating Death and Hitchhiking Africa’<p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Culture is one of the first things you might notice while you travel. While culture shock is a sizable and impactful thing, experiencing other cultures is vital to travel and vital to humanity as a whole. Learning about culture while traveling can help you learn about those that you share the world with, as well as learning more about yourself.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Ladan Jiracek visits this week from his own podcast, the Travel Wisdom podcast. He has been to over ninety countries and loves to think about how travel can be a chance to learn. He and Hayden discuss how to learn from travel and how to find purpose and meaning from your adventures while traveling. They also have an in-depth talk about how important it can be to learn a language while traveling. Ladan also mentions that relationship cultures are among the most drastic differences he has found internationally. The two of them agree that exploring cultures outside of one’s own society is vital.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Ladan also shares what he believes has been holding people back from traveling, while Hayden brings up the topic of podcasts and their impact on the travel world. They talk about one-upping, travel as a learning experience, the impact of certain countries, and their thoughts on marriage and children. Ladan discusses his time in Georgia, as well.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">“Cheating Death and Hitchhiking Africa,” Ladan’s tale of how difficult it can be to get from point A to point B, is full of conflict and twists. One summer, Ladan and his friends decided to hitchhike across Africa, and one thing after another started to go wrong while they were crossing the desert on a twelve-hour road trip into Somalia. Without water and with far too much sand, Ladan remembers vividly how journeying to Somalia was wrought with strife and amusing troubles.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Culture is the most vital part of national identity. It is the root of language, of tradition, and of daily life in communities all around the world. Getting to know the cultures around you, and the cultures around the world, can drastically affect not only you as a traveler, but you as a person, as well.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">0:55 - Hayden introduces Ladan Jiracek, who hosts the Travel Wisdom podcast, has been to over ninety countries, and loves to think about how travel can be a chance to learn. Ladan discusses how to find the purpose and the meaning behind your travels, as well as how important learning a language can be when traveling.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">5:08 - Hayden and Ladan discuss exploring outside of their own societies, and how relationship cultures differ from place to place. Hayden asks Ladan what he has found around the world that he preferred to his own culture.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">10:33 - Ladan talks about what he thinks holds people back from traveling. Hayden mentions how podcasts and the dissemination of information can provide a well-rounded perspective on travel and on the world.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">13:30 - Ladan starts to tell his story, “Cheating Death and Hitchhiking Africa,” his go-to travel story.</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">During the summer semester, Ladan hitchhiked across Africa, and found himself hunched over in a caravan to Somalia. Partway through the trip, they got stuck in the sand, and nobody had water. From there, one thing after another started to go wrong, all the way into Somalia, in a chaotic trip across the desert.</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">21:47 - Hayden and Ladan break down the story and how one-upping other people’s wild ideas can bring exciting experiences. Ladan also discusses his podcast, the Travel Wisdom podcast, and how he sees travel as a learning experience.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">25:51 - Ladan talks about the countries he has traveled to and which adventures made him feel more drawn to certain countries after the fact. He also shares stories about how his time in Georgia impacted him so greatly, as well as his thoughts on marriage and children in regards to travel.</span></li> </ul> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at:</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href="http://www.codycrabb.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website:</span> <a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Works By N.L. Mello</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Add Hayden on Snapchat to follow his journey through Brazil at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">travelstoriesuk</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check us out on Facebook at:</span> <a href= "https://www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast</span></a></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Facebook Live videos are on Tuesdays at 7:00pm GMT/2:00pm EST/11:00am PST.</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Go to Grayl’s website and use the offer code TS25 and get 25% off through the end of November and get hooked up with a purifier at:</span> <a href= "http://www.thegrayl.com/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Grayl</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Join the mailing list at:</span> <a href= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/list/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Mailing List</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Email Ladan at:</span> <a href= "mailto:travelwisdompodcast@gmail.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">travelwisdompodcast@gmail.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out Ladan’s podcast at:</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href= "http://travelwisdompodcast.com/">Travel Wisdom Podcast</a></span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;">Subscribe to Ladan’s podcast on iTunes at: <a href= "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/travel-wisdom-podcast-how/id911287989?mt=2"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Travel Wisdom Podcast</span></a></li> </ul>Listen:

S4E3: Justin Walter - ‘Letting Go’<p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel is quite the ambitious venture. As Hayden says, “to travel is to live.” “The road is the best teacher,” he continues, and he could not be more right; what travelers can learn from their adventures can shape themselves and their lives from there on forwards. The things we learn about the world are not as important as the things we learn about ourselves. The most important question to ask oneself this week is: how does traveling alone affect what travel gives to us?</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Justin Walter joins Hayden to answer exactly this question. Justin, a television host, producer, writer, and traveler, hosts Let’s Go LA!, an outdoor adventure show, and writes the blog Around the World with Justin. He talks with Hayden about the time he won a trip to Wales, as well as how he got started as a world traveler. He discusses his travels and travel writings before Hayden mentions how important it can be to travel alone, and Justin agrees. In fact, he challenges listeners to travel by themselves at least once. He believes that it can force you to meet new people and encounter new things and to confront your fears.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Justin brings his story, a tale which he has titled “Letting Go,” which takes place in Chiang Mai, Thailand. He tells of how he and his friend journeyed to the Yi Peng Lantern Festival before they realized the crowd was entirely filled with people from all over the world, an unexpectedly diverse group. The ceremony and festival were incredibly symbolic and heavy with tradition, giving the entire experience another unique and beautiful layer. However, what was a surprise about the whole event was what happened to one of his companions to the festival.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Traveling alone is not an easy task; however, for any world traveler - or, in fact, for any traveler - it is a necessary task. Solo journeys force travelers to interact more with the world around them and truly get to know the culture on a far deeper level. “The road is the best teacher,” Hayden points out, and the best road trips can be those where the car only holds the driver.</span></p> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">1:19 - Hayden introduces Justin Walter, a television host, producer, writer, and traveler who hosts Let’s Go L.A. and writes Around the World with Justin. Justin talks about his travels, his travel writing, the time he won a trip to Wales, and how he got started as a traveler.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">7:30 - Hayden and Justin talk about how important it can be to travel alone. Justin challenges listeners to travel by themselves at least once. Justin believes that solo travel is an experience that everybody should have.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">12:23 - Justin starts telling his story, which he has titled “Letting Go.”</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Justin traveled to Chiang Mai, Thailand, where he and his friend went to the Yi Peng Lantern Festival. When they were attending the lantern release, they realized the crowd was entirely diverse, with people from all over the world. He witnessed the entire ceremony, and realized the reflective properties of the traditions of the festival. He is able to watch as this crowd of people was connected in this completely unique and utterly beautiful way. What was unexpected, however, was what happened to his to one of the ESL teachers.</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">21:50 - Hayden and Justin break down his story and talk about the act of letting go of negativity and the power of symbolism and visual beauty.</span></li> </ul> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at:</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href="http://www.codycrabb.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website:</span> <a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Works By N.L. Mello</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Add Hayden on Snapchat to follow his journey through Brazil at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">travelstoriesuk</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check us out on Facebook at:</span> <a href= "https://www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast</span></a></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Facebook Live videos are on Tuesdays at 7:00pm GMT/2:00pm EST/11:00am PST.</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Go to Grayl’s website and use the offer code TS25 and get 25% off through the end of November and get hooked up with a purifier at:</span> <a href= "http://www.thegrayl.com/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Grayl</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Join the mailing list at:</span> <a href= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/list/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Mailing List</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Justin’s blog at:</span> <a href= "http://aroundtheworldwithjustin.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Around the World with Justin</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Justin on Instagram at:</span> <a href= "https://www.instagram.com/atwjustin/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">atwjustin</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Justin on Snapchat; his name is: atwjustin</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Justin on Twitter at:</span> <a href= "https://twitter.com/atwjustin/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@atwjustin</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Justin on Facebook at:</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href= "https://www.facebook.com/atwjustin/">Around The World with Justin</a></span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;">Check out the girl’s hair catching on fire here: <a href= "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyua_87An14"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Girl on Fire at Yi Peng Lantern Festival Thailand</span></a></li> </ul>Listen:

S4E2: Cody Crabb - ‘The Ambulance Story’<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">When bad things happen, humans, in essence, have two response options: they can worry about it, stress about it, and live in a place of fear, for one. Their second option, though? They can pre-accept that bad situations might happen and live in a place of learning and gratitude instead. It is nearly impossible to stop bad situations from happening, but one thing that can be controlled is the response.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Hayden welcomes Cody Crabb, a composer based out of Salt Lake City. He has worked on a number of full-length films, YouTube channels, and shorts, and is currently composing scores for the very Travel Stories Podcast. He and Hayden talk about how the location of a story influences his scores, how important body language can be, and the significance of learning and understanding the local language when you travel.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Cody shares his story, which took place in Sinaloa, Mexico. He calls this story, “The Ambulance Story.” He spent two years in Mexico, but he still remembers vividly the day that he and one of his new companions saw an ambulance and a truck squeal around the corner while they were walking down the street in Sinaloa. It was not the speed or the recklessness of the vehicles that surprised him - no, it was what he saw and heard on the back of the truck that surprised him more than anything else.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The lessons learned in another country when one travels can stay in memory and actions for years after the adventure is over. Cody and Hayden talk about how important it is to attempt to prepare for any situation when you travel. Hayden talks about how he likes to fly by the seat of his pants, and how instincts can be changed. Composure is a powerful trait to possess when traveling, and keeping oneself in a state of pre-acceptance can lead to a stressless travel mindset.</span></p> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">0:58 - Hayden introduces Cody Crabb, a composer based out of Salt Lake City who has worked on a number of full-length films, YouTube channels, and shorts, as well as for the Travel Stories Podcast. Cody talks about how the location of a story influences his scores for the podcast.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">5:09 - Hayden points out how Cody always mentions Mexico, and Cody shares his Spanish fluency. They discuss how knowing the native language as well as body language can affect your travel experience.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">16:08 - Cody begins to tell his story, taking place in Sinaloa, Mexico, which he has titled “The Ambulance Story.”</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Cody spent two years in Mexico; one day, when he was in Sinaloa one day, walking down the street with one of his new companions, he saw an ambulance and a truck peel off, squealing around the corner. What was truly shocking, though, was what Cody saw on the back of the truck. Cody’s companion was so alarmed, he froze up, but Cody knew they still had work to do.</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">22:34 - Cody talks about how the lessons he learned in Mexico will stay with him for as long as he lives, and he and Hayden talk about how to prepare for any situation when you travel, good and bad, and how the body knows how to respond in a frightening situation. Hayden discusses how he solves situations in the moment, and how people can not only follow their instincts, but also change them.</span></li> </ul> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at:</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href="http://www.codycrabb.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website:</span> <a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Works By N.L. Mello</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Add Hayden on Snapchat to follow his journey through Brazil at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">travelstoriesuk</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check us out on Facebook at:</span> <a href= "https://www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast</span></a></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Facebook Live videos are on Tuesdays at 7:00pm GMT/2:00pm EST/11:00am PST.</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Go to Grayl’s website and use the offer code TS25 and get 25% off through the end of November and get hooked up with a purifier at:</span> <a href= "http://www.thegrayl.com/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Grayl</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Join the mailing list at:</span> <a href= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/list/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Mailing List</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">You can contact Cody Crabb on Facebook at:</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href= "https://www.facebook.com/codycrabbmusic/">Cody Crabb Music</a></span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;">You can email Cody Crabb at: <a href= "mailto:cody@travelstoriespodcast.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">cody@travelstoriespodcast.com</span></a></li> </ul>Listen:

S4E1: Mike Corey - ‘Hypothermia in the Desert?’<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">A proverb known around the world is “curiosity killed the cat,” but few know the rejoinder: “but satisfaction brought it back.” The risk that satisfying curiosity brings is well worth the fulfillment that comes from gratifying curiosity. Curiosity, that force that drives the human race in all they do, and has done so since their birth, is the reason behind most human activities: reading, walking, and, of course, traveling.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mike Corey joins Hayden to further explore the topic of curiosity. Mike is a breakdancing marine biologist and travel videographer who declared that he “captures our world with a curiosity that comes from never growing up.” He shares with Hayden his three core values, which both of them are strong believers in. Mike and Hayden also discuss how important it can be to self-discovery to travel by yourself, and what travel can teach you.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mike shares his story, “Hypothermia in the Desert,” a tale of danger in the Outback. Mike visited the Olgas, a series of incredible, tall mountains that happen to be out in the middle of nowhere, in the Australian desert. The desert, however, happens to get deathly cold at night; Mike thought it was worth the danger to witness the stars in a land with no light pollution, but danger lurks around every corner, even where it was least expected.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mike and Hayden also share several tangents, the most prominent of which regards social media and technology, and how these aspects of modern life can impact travel and how people think of and see traveling. Curiosity fuels most actions humans accomplish, but the satisfaction of a gratified curiosity is worth the risk of taking the leap in the first place.</span></p> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">1:15 - Hayden introduces Mike Corey, a breakdancing marine biologist and travel videographer who “captures our world with a curiosity that comes from never growing up.”</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">4:14 - Mike talks about his three values, which Hayden strongly believes in and which Mike is more than willing to share with the audience.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">11:43 - Mike starts telling his story, which takes place in the Outback, and which he has named “Hypothermia in the Desert?”</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mike journeyed to Australia to see the Olgas, a series of incredible, tall mountains in the middle of nowhere, where there was no light pollution. He thought it was worth it to sleep under the stars, but the desert gets deathly cold at night. The cold may not end up being the biggest threat that night, however.</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">18:15 - Mike and Hayden break down Mike’s story before returning to Mike’s three values. Mike shares his final value and what, exactly, it means to him. They also go on tangents that mention how important it can be to self-discovery to travel by yourself and what travel teaches you.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">31:02 - Hayden brings their tangents back around to social media and technology, and Mike weighs in on how these aspects of modern life impact travel and people’s opinions on traveling.</span></li> </ul> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at:</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href="http://www.codycrabb.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;"><a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/">Works By N.L. Mello</a></span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check us out on Facebook at:</span> <a href= "https://www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast</span></a></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Facebook Live videos are on Tuesdays at 7:00pm GMT/2:00pm EST/11:00am PST.</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Go to Grayl’s website and use the offer code TS25 and get 25% off through the end of November and get hooked up with a purifier at:</span> <a href= "http://www.thegrayl.com/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Grayl</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Join the mailing list at:</span> <a href= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/list/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Mailing List</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out Mike on YouTube at:</span> <a href= "https://www.youtube.com/mikecorey"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Kick the Grind</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Mike on social media:</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Facebook at:</span> <a href= "https://www.facebook.com/KicktheGrind"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Mike Corey</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Facebook (again) at:</span> <a href= "https://www.facebook.com/KicktheGrindTV/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Kick the Grind</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Twitter at:</span> <a href= "https://twitter.com/KickTheGrind"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@KickTheGrind</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Instagram at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;"><a href= "https://www.instagram.com/kickthegrind/">@kickthegrind</a></span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="text-align: center;">Check out Mike’s website at: <a href="http://www.kickthegrind.tv/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">KickTheGrind.tv</span></a></li> </ul>Listen:

Season Three Q&A<p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Season three has been a roller coaster ride of emotions, from Laura Bingham to Travis Merrigan and everything in between. Of course, Hayden, Cody, and Nicole have to answer for the questions that Hayden has been pushing for the listeners to send in all season, and they come together to do just that in the final episode of season three - the Q&A.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Hayden reads questions from Chris Williams, Pete James, Jan, Lakshmi Prahlad, Tom Griffiths, Billy Chavez, Mike Cowl, and Nikola Nováková. The team answers questions about overcoming a lack of social skills, finding a way to collect and organize your travel bucket list and online content, and whether or not travelers should be going off the beaten path when in an untouched environment. They also talk about finding things you never knew you were looking for through travel and how to travel on your own. Cody answers a question specifically about composition, and the whole team answers questions about their favorite music to listen to while traveling.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The team is excited for the upcoming season four and all of the new aspects that are coming with it, including a weekly email and weekly Facebook live videos. Thank you for sharing season three with the time, and enjoy season four when it comes!</span></p> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">2:27 - Hayden reads the first question, from Chris Williams:</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">“What would you say is the best way to engage in conversation, to overcome lack of social skills whilst travelling throughout a completely foreign land?”</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">6:57 - The team answers the second question, from Pete James:</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Love the show. Question about the tools you have come across to discover and collect travel inspiration. I often find travel blogs have loads of great info about destinations and I copy the interesting information I find into a (messy) doc and a bookmarks folder knowing that someday I will visit. There must be a better way?!? How do you collect and organise your travel bucket list and awesome content you find online?”</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">10:13 - Cody, Hayden, and Nicole talk about the third message, from Jan:</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">“Hello Travel-stories-Team, I just listened to an episode of your podcast and I wanted to give you a quick feedback to a topic which I think is very important. Sean Whitehead mentioned in the podcast episode 10 from season 2 (Somebody ‘Alp’ me) that he went to Iceland and drove off the main roads to find this cool place in the mountains. I just came back from a trip to Iceland as well and as I was traveling through the country I saw a lot of trails, that lead from the main road into untouched nature. These scars do much damage to the surface, because the ground on Iceland is very soft and mushy due to its porous volcanic stones and ashes; it takes decades to heal and you can see these trails very clearly even after many years. There are actually brochures in every tourist information centre on Iceland telling you not to drive off-road. I also found amazing and impressive spots in Iceland while staying on the main roads. And yes, I know, tourists can be very annoying and can ruin this “I am alone in the mountains”-feeling, but there is a reason that these tourist-spots exist: to protect nature from everybody trample over untouched nature and leave behind human footprints. In 2010 there were about 480.000 tourists visiting Iceland, today the number has increased to 1,7 million people. So you see it is very important to protect this unique landscape as it is, as more and more tourists come to this place. Because the images of these tracks are still fresh in my mind, I wanted to tell you about this. Keep on traveling, your podcast is very entertaining.”</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">17:15 - The team talks about the fourth message, from Lakshmi Prahlad:</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">“Someone said "Traveling is about finding those things you never knew you were looking for". This quote always gets me thinking in what ways travel changed me, and what I have gained, which i never thought I would. Travel gets us access to so many different cultures, interactions with beautiful humans across the globe, traditions and many more things. I would like to know your perspective on the quote and maybe share some experience through your travels? And must say - Your way of connecting to the listeners (Big fan of your voice), Cody's background scores, and Nicole's writing is just amazing! You guys are awesome!”</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">22:31 - Cody answers the fifth question, from Tom Griffiths:</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Hey guys, love the show- it must take a lot to put the episodes together, and I love that. Even though I do like to travel, my question isn't actually about travel. I'm an aspiring composer and I love what Cody does on the show. My question is, does he compose a new bit of music each week for the show or does he have a library of past compositions he's using, and how does he know what type of music to write?”</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">27:42 - Hayden reads off the sixth message, from Billy Chavez:</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">“Hello! My names billy I'm 19 years old and I'm a rock climber hippy vegetarian. I have plans for a trip to Bali Indonesia I'm planning on leaving in October returning in January All my life I've felt this need for adventure and that's the reason I'm going. But I have a problem. I recently got into a bad break up with my first love. Now I'm slightly nervous to go alone. I know you say to travel alone is better. I'm just emotional and not sure what to do.”</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">32:54 - Hayden reads the penultimate question, from Mike Cowl:</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Just to let you know your show is much appreciated. Am a Brit who moved to the US in the 80's and haven't stopped traveling around the country (mostly work related). My first job included many months driving a converted Winnebago to put on product presentations. I saw the US at the grassroots level often traveling with the local rep. The joke was that I would have to find a real job after this gigg!! Yes to going overseas to visit & explore other countries but there's a heck of a lot to see in the USA. Keep up a great show.”</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">38:29 - The team answers the final question, from Nikola Nováková:</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Love the podcast!! I love travel, and I love music. My question is, what's your favourite music to listen to when you're traveling?”</span></li> </ul> </li> </ul> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at:</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href="http://www.codycrabb.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website:</span> <a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Works By N.L. Mello</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Add Hayden on Snapchat to follow his journey through Brazil at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">travelstoriesuk</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check us out on Facebook at:</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href= "https://www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast">Travel Stories Podcast</a></span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;">Go to Grayl’s website and use the offer code TS25 and get 25% off through the end of November and get hooked up with a purifier at: <a href= "http://www.thegrayl.com/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Grayl</span></a></li> </ul>Listen:

Unpacking Season Three<p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Season three has been a roller-coaster ride of emotions and adventures. Best of all, it has been a tapestry of stories, featuring a broad range of different types of stories and an in-depth exploration of the art of storytelling. Hayden, Cody, and Nicole arrive to unpack their favorite moments from the past season.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Among their favorite standout moments are features from the episodes of Evan Hanson, Laura Bingham, Marissa Brown, Richard Bruschi, and Jeff Baker. A few other mentions belong to Tom Butler and Johannes Koeppel. The crew also talks about standout discussions from the season, including those regarding confidence, how deserving an individual is of their life, and how to seek opportunities around every corner. Also featured is a brief blooper reel with an unfortunate mistake by Cody himself.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Season three may be coming to a close, but the Travel Stories Podcast is revamping and coming back bigger and better than ever. With season four will come an expanded platform and more goodies than we ever thought we could deserve.</span></p> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">3:12 - Hayden introduces the unpacking of season three and how this season has had a broad range of different types of stories. Cody and Nicole chime in with their thoughts on stories, the art of storytelling, and the stories of season three.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">8:30 - Hayden, Cody, and Nicole start dishing about standout moments, including Evan Hanson, Cody’s musical scores, Nicole’s words, confidence, and Laura Bingham.</span> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;"><img src= "http://936weekstomanhood.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/p1006538150-3-e1452876663284.jpg" alt= "Image result for evan hanson 936 weeks to manhood" /></span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">16:30 - Cody brings up one of his top standout moments, from Marissa Brown’s episode about traveling in Mexico. Nicole chimes in with a couple of favorites from Richard Bruschi and Jeff Baker.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">27:44 - Hayden shares a voicemail from Tom Butler, who can never seem to quite get to his point. He also mentions a memorable time from Johannes Koeppel, and the crew discusses where opportunities might be lurking when you travel. Hayden mentions Glogor Carik, an incredibly real place he visited in Bali.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">37:53 - Hayden introduces a brief blooper reel, primarily featuring an outtake from Cody from the Halloween episode.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">40:38 - Hayden talks about the new stuff coming to the Travel Stories Podcast in season four, including Facebook Live sessions, a new blog, and much, much more.</span></li> </ul> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at:</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href="http://www.codycrabb.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website:</span> <a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Works By N.L. Mello</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Add Hayden on Snapchat to follow his journey through Brazil at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">travelstoriesuk</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check us out on Facebook at:</span> <a href= "https://www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast</span></a></li> </ul>Listen:

S3E12: Travis Merrigan - ‘River to the Deepest Amazon’<p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Establishing a human connection is the base of the most important things in this world. Hayden shares what he believes to be the three things that best cultivate these connections between separate human beings before he welcomes Travis Merrigan, one of the founders of Grayl, creator of the infamous Grayl Ultralight Purifier Bottle.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travis Merrigan visits to talk about how excited he is about life and being alive, and how his travels have made him that way. He discusses solo trips, and how awesome that can be for the traveler and their experience. He believes in turning away from what you know and embracing what you do not know. He also thinks that one can enjoy genuine moments of human closeness by learning a new language or immersing oneself. in a new culture. He and Hayden talk about vulnerability and gaining human closeness through one’s willingness to be open when they travel. Did you know that people like to share, so it is not too hard to connect to people when you’re traveling? Sharing food is one of the easiest ways to make that connection.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travis shares his story, named, “River to the Deepest Amazon,” which he considers his single most powerful travel experience. He traveled to Latin America, to Brazil, and took a boat up the Amazon. On the trip, he and his fellow travelers on the boat formed a community of neighbors. He believes that if you just say yes when you are offered a piece of kindness by a local, you might just experience the most powerful ten days of your life.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travis also talks about how he cultivated his open mindset and his own vulnerability. He also talks about Grayl and the Grayl Ultralight Purifier Bottle. He even offers up the offer code TS25 - if you use it at the Grayl website in the links below, you can get 25% off through the end of November and get hooked up with a purifier.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Human connections are all around you, if you just think to look around and seek them out. Offer a place to say, or a meal to share. You might be surprised by the friends you make.</span></p> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">0:44 - Hayden introduces the concept of human connection, the base of the most important things in the world. He talks about what three things that best cultivate the connection between two separate human beings.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">2:02 - Hayden presents Travis Merrigan, one of the founders of Grayl, who is excited about life and about being alive, and talks about why his travels have made him that way.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">8:58 - Travis and Hayden talk about vulnerability and gaining human closeness through one’s willingness to be open when they travel.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">13:53 - Travis introduces his story, which he considers his single most powerful travel experience, and which he has named, “River to the Deepest Amazon.”</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">When Travis was in Latin America, he visited Brazil and took a boat up the Amazon. On the trip, he and his fellow travelers on the boat formed a community of neighbors. They became rather close; some even became Travis’ lifelong friends. One of these friends invited Travis to her remote village, and her family taught him a great deal about their culture. He learned more with these people than he could have learned in any other way, and the entire experience fostered deeper connections with people than he had ever had before.</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">22:27 - Hayden and Travis break down Travis’ story, discussing how his vulnerability led him to having this experience in Brazil. Travis shares how he cultivated his open mindset, and offers advice on how, exactly, he pulls it off.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">29:06 - Hayden asks Travis about the Grayl Ultralight Purifier Bottle. Travis talks about the inspiration behind Grayl and how recycling, size, and health played a big part in the creation of the purifier bottle.</span></li> </ul> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at:</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href="http://www.codycrabb.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website:</span> <a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Works By N.L. Mello</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Add Hayden on Snapchat to follow his journey through Brazil at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">travelstoriesuk</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check us out on Facebook at:</span> <a href= "https://www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Go to Grayl’s website and use the offer code TS25 and get 25% off through the end of November and get hooked up with a purifier at:</span> <a href= "http://www.thegrayl.com/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Grayl</span></a></li> </ul>Listen:

S3E11: Gail Faith - ‘Havisham’s Goonies’<p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Hayden brings on Cody, Nicole, Remy (his sister), and Gail (his mother) to share stories of fear and fright from around the world.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Remy visits to talk about the haunting of Havisham Court by the ghostly Elizabeth Parker, who was destroyed by grief while living in that house. In fact, some say you can still see her roaming the grounds of the house, skeletal in her wedding dress. Nicole shares stories from the haunted graveyard in her Massachusetts hometown - the Quaker Cemetery, also known as Spider Gates, the eighth gate of Hell. Cody talks about the friendly, mischievous usher who haunts the Capitol Theatre in Salt Lake City, Utah.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The highlight of this episode is Gail Faith and her story, “Havisham’s Goonies,” in which she recounts the time she and her friends broke into the abandoned Havisham Court house. They were possibly hunted by the ghost of Elizabeth Parker, who locked up doors and windows on them while they were in the unoccupied and haunted house. They were terrified by what happened to them that night, and by what they found at the house only a few days later.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">In addition, the crew shares stories and urban legends from around the world. Nicole brings in the legend of the Kuchisake-onna, or the slit-mouthed woman, of Japan. Cody talks about the chupacabra, a bizarre South American creature that kills sheeps and goats and sucks out their blood. Hayden shares the history of the island of Poveglia in Italy, a place which has a history consisting almost exclusively of various forms of death. This includes plague, lepers, mental hospitals, and so on.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel does not take a holiday, but it does celebrate it. Scary stories come from all corners of the globe to terrify us, but by no means should that stop us from traveling. In fact, the possibility of a spooky adventure is, more than anything, a reason to keep on looking for a ghost around the corner or a fright under the hostel bed.</span></p> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">2:20 - Hayden introduces Cody, Nicole, and Remy in this special edition of the Travel Stories Podcast for Halloween. The four of them will be sharing spooky tales and urban legends for this Scary Stories Podcast episode.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">5:42 - Hayden and Remy start telling their story about the haunting of Havisham Court by Elizabeth Parker, who was destroyed by grief while living in that house; some say you can still see her roaming the grounds of the house, skeletal in her wedding dress.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">7:54 - Nicole shares stories about the haunted graveyard Spider Gates in her hometown of Leicester, Massachusetts, where you can, supposedly, speak to a spirit and enter the eighth gate of Hell.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">11:53 - Cody talks about the Capitol Theatre in downtown Salt Lake City, haunted by a mischievous undead usher who likes to mess around with the crews and performers in the building.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">14:07 - The crew talks about Slenderman, Stranger Things, their all-time favorite Halloween movies, and whether or not scary movies are genuine forms of entertainment. Hayden and Remy share stories from their childhood, as well.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">21:49 - Hayden introduces the special Halloween story, courtesy of his mother, Gail Faith, who titled her story, “Havisham’s Goonies”.</span> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Gail and her friends broke into the Havisham Court house when she was young, through an open back window, back when the place was unoccupied. They snuck up the stairs, where they heard a noise, then crashed through the bannister. They were trapped, and were shocked by what happened next to them that night, and by what they found a few days later.</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">28:49 - Hayden breaks down his mother’s story with Remy and the crew and talks about Elizabeth Parker’s need for another shoe.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">30:17 - Cody shares a story about the haunting of the house that his wife, Amanda, grew up in, which he claims is very old - but Hayden and Remy would like to disagree.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">32:35 - The team talks about spooky things from around the world, starting with Nicole, who talks about the Japanese legend of the slit-mouthed woman.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">36:47 - Cody talks about the chupacabra, a bizarre South American creature that kills sheeps and goats and sucks out their blood.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">38:58 - Hayden shares his legend of the island of Poveglia in Italy, a place which has a history consisting almost exclusively of various forms of death. This includes plague, lepers, mental hospitals, and so on.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">42:21 - The crew talks about Halloween costumes and who (or what) they want to dress up as this year.</span></li> </ul> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at: </span><a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at: </span><span style= "font-weight: 400;">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at: </span><a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website: </span><a href= "http://www.codycrabb.com"><span style="font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website: </span><a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Works By N.L. Mello</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Add Hayden on Snapchat to follow his journey through Brazil at: </span><span style= "font-weight: 400;">travelstoriesuk</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check us out on Facebook at: </span><span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href= "https://www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast">Travel Stories Podcast</a></span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;">Check out this possible explanation for the Bermuda triangle: <a href= "https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2016/10/25/the-bermuda-triangle-mystery-isnt-solved-and-this-scientist-didnt-suggest-it-was/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Bermuda Triangle</span></a></li> </ul>Listen:

S3E10: Johannes Koeppel - ‘From Russia With Love’<p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">There are two types of traveling - solo traveling, and group traveling. Both have their benefits, depending on the person, but neither one can be easy to accomplish. Johannes Koeppel, the CEO of WeTravel, visits Hayden to talk about his website, which helps travelers create and join group trips around the world.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Hayden and Johannes also talk about Johannes’ travel experiences and why he wants to travel and give back to the world. They also discuss putting life in perspective, shifting your mindset, spending appropriate amounts of time in other cultures, and how traveling can shape a child’s open mindset.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Johannes shares his Moscow-set story, titled, “From Russia With Love,” in which he attends Moscow State University and, while he still didn’t really understand the country, lived through a fire alarm that was an indicator of a much larger and more terrifying event. This experience left Johannes with the feeling of danger, of never feeling safe, of a constant unease. This wake-up call changed his outlook on life and his attitude while he lived in Russia.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Before he leaves, Johannes talks about the traveling “itch” and the thrill that comes from not knowing where tomorrow will bring you. He also shares how he came up with the idea to create WeTravel, who uses it, and how to use it. There are two types of traveling, and Johannes Koeppel may be able to help you figure out the best choice for you.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">0:42 - Hayden talks about the two different types of traveling - solo traveling, and traveling with a group, and the benefits of either one.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">2:40 - Hayden introduces Johannes Koeppel, the CEO of WeTravel. WeTravel helps you create a group trip and join other group trips.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">3:57 - Johannes and Hayden talk about Johannes’ travel experience, where he joined Doctors Without Borders and the International Committee of the Red Cross. After growing up privileged, Johannes wants to give back, and he wants to travel, as well. They also talk about putting life into perspective.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">9:35 - Johannes discusses values and how important it is to spend an extended amount of time in a country, because this can drastically shift both your perspective and your mindset. Hayden agrees, and talks about how travel can make you question your own life and mind.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">12:14 - Hayden and Johannes discuss traveling with children and how travel can shape a child’s life going forwards from their childhood. They talk about the traveling “itch,” not knowing where you might be tomorrow, and how difficult it can be to settle down.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">15:00 - Johannes starts telling his story, set in Moscow, titled, “From Russia With Love.”</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Johannes arrived at the Moscow State University, to his tiny room, with his tiny bed; he didn’t really understand the country yet. A fire alarm went off in the freezing cold late March, and he made a startling discovery as to the origins of the alarm. It left him with the feeling of danger, of never feeling safe, of a constant unease. His experiences left him with a wake-up call “from Russia, with love.”</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">21:23 - Hayden and Johannes break down his story, discussing his terrifying event and what his initial reactions were when it happened to him. Johannes shares how this experience changed his outlook on life and his attitude while he lived in Russia.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">24:51 - Johannes talks about WeTravel with Hayden. He shares how he came up with the idea to create WeTravel, who uses it, and how to use it. Johannes tells Hayden exactly how to get involved with WeTravel.</span></li> </ul> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at:</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href="http://www.codycrabb.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website:</span> <a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Works By N.L. Mello</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Add Hayden on Snapchat at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">travelstoriesuk</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check us out on Facebook at:</span> <a href= "https://www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out Johannes Koeppel’s website at:</span> <a href="https://www.wetravel.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">WeTravel</span></a></li> </ul>Listen:

S3E9: Paul Kortman - ‘Why You Should Never Trust Google Maps’<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Many people share the same dream - the yearning to sell everything you own, buy an RV, and just drive. Just live, just be, and enjoy the freedom that comes with that nomadic lifestyle. Hayden lived that way as a child, and Paul Kortman lives that way now. He and his family of six live in an RV, traveling around America and Mexico, making Paul a veritable fountain of knowledge and wisdom when it comes to RV-ing.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Paul visits Hayden to discuss his digital nomad lifestyle, how he decided not to settle and why he thinks nobody else should have to, and what the benefits of his nomadic lifestyle are. Paul also talks about how important it is to find a balance with those you travel with, and answers a few crucial questions one might have if they were thinking about becoming location independent.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Paul also shares his story, titled “Why You Should Never Trust Google Maps,” which takes place in Mexico in his RV and features a 57-foot-long rig, a steep slope that might be a bit more than Paul and his RV can chew, and a Google Map that has no concept of just how impossible it will be for this rig to follow its directions.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Becoming location independent is not an easy task, but Paul offers some helpful advice and ways of tackling the difficulties of his life. Though it was a long road to get to where he is now, Paul knows that making the decision not to settle was the best decision he and his family ever could have made.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">0:43 - Hayden discusses the motor home he and his family traveled in when he was young, and how that led to a dream many people have had - where you can sell everything you own, buy an RV, and just driving, living, being, and the freedom that comes with it.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">2:46 - Hayden introduces Paul Kortman, an avid RV-er who travels around America and Mexico with his family of six in an RV. Paul discusses maintaining positivity in your travels.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">6:02 - Paul and Hayden talk about Paul’s digital nomad lifestyle and how he manages this with his family of six. Paul discusses how he makes hard decisions in this life and how he gets the word out that nobody has to compromise or settle in their lives. He decided not to settle, and it was the best decision he and his wife ever made.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">16:02 - Paul mentions the benefits of his nomadic lifestyle, and how the travel bug is in his family’s blood. He also talks about starting a home base in the next couple of years, that he would then travel from, combining the best of both worlds and doing what they most want to do.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">20:32 - Paul starts telling his Mexican RV story, titled “Why You Should Never Trust Google Maps.”</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Once Paul and his family got their RV, they decided to travel for their first camping trip. They spent six months driving their RV, which was so large that they could barely fit in highway lanes, with their minivan and trailer pulling behind them. They traveled for six months this way, eventually ending up in Mexico, through the use of Google Maps.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Paul and his family encountered a steep slope that he attempted to drive up, but failed; he listened to the instructions of Google Maps, but even Google could not begin to accommodate for the size of his 57-foot rig. Eight guys, and Paul, tried to unhook his rig and get his RV out of this situation, but they still failed, and tore up the road in the process. Eventually, they had to problem-solve without brute force.</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">31:17 - Hayden and Paul break down Paul’s story, discussing how to find a balance and cover weaknesses with those you travel with. They talk about how important it is to have people in your life to work through your ideas with, and it is especially important when you travel.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">36:59 - Paul talks about his book, “Family Freedom,” which he says is not a story about his family, nor is it a fictional story; it is, he says, a guidebook of the steps one needs to take, the things one needs to consider, and the questions one needs answered, if they are looking to be a location independent family.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">39:30 - Paul and Hayden discuss Paul’s podcast, Nomad Together, which features tips on what to do and how to live when you are location independent, a lifestyle that answers a lot of questions that crop up in that way of life. Paul also mentions his website, Home Along the Way, his blog that follows his family’s life as they travel and inspires those reading his posts.</span></li> </ul> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at:</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href="http://www.codycrabb.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website:</span> <a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Works By N.L. Mello</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Add Hayden on Snapchat to follow his journey through Brazil at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">travelstoriesuk</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check us out on Facebook at:</span> <a href= "https://www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Find Paul’s book, Family Freedom: A Guide to Becoming a Location Independent Family, on his website:</span> <a href="https://nomadtogether.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">NomadTogether</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out Paul’s podcast on iTunes at:</span> <a href= "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-nomadtogether-podcast/id1020837599"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">The Nomad Together Podcast | Location Independent Families & Digital Nomad Families</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Visit Paul’s blog that follows his family’s life as they travel at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;"><a href="http://homealongtheway.com/">Home Along The Way</a></span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;">Paul and his wife started a Facebook group to answer your questions at: <a href= "https://www.facebook.com/groups/LocationIndependentFamilies/"><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Location Independent Families Facebook</span></a></li> </ul>Listen:

S3E8: Kristen Sarah - 'Dancing for an Indian King'<p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Spontaneity is one of the most important parts of having a truly incredible travel experience. Going on an adventure means doing things without thinking, damn the consequences; the best thing one can do is trust their gut and do what feels good. It can turn out badly if common sense is not employed, but trusting your gut feeling when opportunity arises can bring the adventures so longed for. Kristen Sarah of Hopscotch the Globe knows a thing or two about spontaneity, and brings her travel experience along for the ride.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Kristen Sarah has a YouTube channel and a blog, but even between all that she manages to continue traveling and provide herself with content. She and Hayden discuss culture immersion, how to make a life fun through travel, and getting into the adventurous side of travel, like through food adventures and sports. Her story, “Dancing for an Indian King,” finds Kristen in Rajasthan, where a drumming class spontaneously led her to a village where anything unexpected could happen - including performing for a king.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Spontaneity is important, because it could lead to the best adventures of a lifetime - trusting your gut feeling, meeting someone new, taking a drumming class, or even dancing for an Indian king. Learning to just say ‘yes’ when an opportunity arises is vital to any travel adventure.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">2:07 - Hayden introduces Kristen Sarah, and they discuss Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia, why Kristen travels, and cultural immersion.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">7:11 - Hayden and Kristen talk about feeling nomadic and what feels like home when you travel as much as they do.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">10:28 - Hayden discusses how much fun Kristen brings into her life, how she makes her life fun through travel, and how important it is to make your own life fun, regardless of how you achieve it.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">11:41 - Kristen Sarah starts telling her story, “Dancing for an Indian King.”</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">When Kristen was in Rajasthan, she spontaneously went to a drumming class, which led her into the desert to a village where anything could happen.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Kristen and her group came upon a pre-wedding party, where she learned the drummers were going to perform for the king of the village. Little did she know that she, too, was expected to perform for the king.</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">18:36 - Hayden and Kristen break down Kristen’s story, discussing the rather interesting parts of Western culture that Kristen brought to the village, as well as the importance of spontaneity and just saying ‘yes’ to things.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">22:02 - Hayden asks Kristen about her YouTube channel; she talks about how she loves to show the adventurous side of travel, getting off the beaten path, food adventures, adventure sports. She also likes to give travel tips and advice on her channel. She talks about her travel preferences and why she likes to go where she does.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">27:50 - Kristen discusses her blog, Hopscotch the Globe, which brings the fun aspect of travel to the forefront. She also talks about her course on how to make a living traveling and making travel videos.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">30:56 - Hayden and Kristen talk about Kristen’s new lifestyle and how she settles into changes in her life.</span></li> </ul> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at:</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href="http://www.codycrabb.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website:</span> <a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Works By N.L. Mello</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Add Hayden on Snapchat to follow his journey through Brazil at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">travelstoriesuk</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check us out on Facebook at:</span> <a href= "https://www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out Kristen’s fun travel videos on YouTube at:</span> <a href= "https://www.youtube.com/user/hopscotchtheglobe"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Kristen Sarah</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Visit Kristen’s blog at:</span> <a href= "http://hopscotchtheglobe.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Hopscotch the Globe</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out Kristen’s e-course at:</span> <a href="http://hopscotchtheglobe.com/how-to-make-travel-youtube-videos/"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">How to Make a Living Creating Travel Videos</span></a></li> </ul>Listen:

S3E7: Evan Hanson - 'Two Summits in Seven Days'<p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Adventure travel is only one possible facet of travel, but it is also one of the most exciting. The challenge of adventure traveling - of climbing mountains, of whitewater rafting, of staying alone in the desert - is enough to get any traveler to try it. Evan Hanson, however, is not just any traveler.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Evan Hanson may be sixty-four years old, but he has lived the lives of at least seven men. He has traveled for many, many years, he considers himself a consummate explorer, and he has come to visit Hayden and bring wisdom to share with the world. Evan shares his definition of adventure, as well as what got him into adventuring and advice on how to start adventuring.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Evan’s story, “Two Summits in Seven Days,” details Evan’s journey as he and his friends decided to hike both the Matterhorn and Kilimanjaro. It was expensive, difficult, took place in two different hemispheres, and they hit a great deal of roadblocks along the way. Despite the odds, though, he succeeded, and counts it among his greatest achievements. “Be ambitious when you’re planning, but plan well,” Evan says. “Don’t let obstacles deter you from reaching your goals, and you will be successful.”</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Evan shares the two biggest obstacles of adventure, as well as the two main elements to making travel work. Hayden and Evan discuss overcoming roadblocks and the importance of a sense of challenge. Incorporating your passion into your adventure travel is not an easy task, but it does build character, which is vital to adventure traveling.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">0:41 - Hayden begins discussing adventure travel and why people adventure travel.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">2:42 - Hayden brings on Evan Hanson, who Evan has been traveling since his 20s; Hayden asks what makes him still do these things. Evan talks about his definition of adventure, which he sums up as “certain uncertainty,” as well as what got him into adventuring.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">10:26 - Evan gives advice on how to start adventuring. He says the two main elements are balance and prudence. If you keep pushing the envelope, the envelope eats you.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">15:52 - Hayden and Evan discuss the history of the location that you’re in and how you can stand in the same spot something incredible happened and feel what happened in that spot.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">17:26 - Evan starts telling his adventure story of climbing two different mountains in two different hemispheres, titled “Two Summits in Seven Days.”</span> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Evan was a desert survival instructor in Saudi Arabia, and he and his fellow instructors decided to climb both the Matterhorn in Switzerland and Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. It was going to be expensive, and difficult, but they were determined.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">When they went up in the mountain to get acclimated to the elevation, it snowed, in July. When they were finally ready to climb the Matterhorn, it took them six hours, but it was worth every moment.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">They had to immediately head out to Tanzania after their descent and a night of sleep, and when they arrived, they had lost their food bag, so they decided they had to climb even more quickly than the normal expedition. They ascended quickly, and Evan got acute mountain sickness, but he was determined to make it to the summit. And make it he did, but he was so sick he had to descend rapidly after that. They climbed the mountain in only three-and-a-half days, despite the odds.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Be ambitious when you’re planning, but plan well. Don’t let obstacles deter you from reaching your goals, and you will be successful.”</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">34:06 - Hayden and Evan break down Evan’s story, discussing the two biggest obstacles of adventure and how Evan overcame those roadblocks in order to achieve one of his biggest adventures. They also talk about the importance of having a sense of challenge when you journey.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">37:18 - Evan talks about how he incorporates his life and his passions into his travels and adventures. He thinks it is important to do things that will build character, like suffering, perseverance, fear, and many other experiences. Hayden agrees that it is important to put everything out there and learn to go over roadblocks.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">40:00 - Hayden shares his story of fear from nighttime in Brazil, of fearing nighttime in Rio and what could happen while you travel. He and Evan discuss how important planning is to travel.</span></li> </ul> <p> </p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at:</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href="http://www.codycrabb.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website:</span> <a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Works By N.L. Mello</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Add Hayden on Snapchat to follow his journey through Brazil at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">travelstoriesuk</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check us out on Facebook at:</span> <a href= "https://www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Buy Evan’s book on Amazon at:</span> <a href= "https://www.amazon.com/Two-Journeys-Manhood-Rediscover-Passage/dp/1523653469/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1475290830&sr=8-1&keywords=two+journeys+to+manhood"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Two Journeys to Manhood</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Listen to Evan’s podcast online at:</span> <a href="http://936weekstomanhood.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">936 Weeks to Manhood</span></a></li> </ul>Listen:

S3E6: Tom Butler - 'Without a Paddle'<p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Countless things can go wrong in travel, and even in life. There is no way to stop mistakes from being made and terrible situations from arising; there is, however, a way to control your own response to these mistakes and situations. Tom Butler, a great friend of Hayden’s, has spent many years of travel solving problems, and has a lot of advice to give.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Tom is not only a friend of Hayden’s, but also a friend, bus driver, and groupie to Hayden’s band. The two of them discuss living a life of travel, what it means to settle down, and how to incorporate travel into your everyday life. Hayden was inspired by Tom’s travels, and the two of them talk about their inspirations and origins as travelers. Tom offers advice to those who do not have confidence in their own ability to travel.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Tom’s story takes place in Nepal, and is titled “Without a Paddle.” In it, Tom backpacks through Nepal to Kathmandu, goes on a rafting tour, and befriends his fellow travels and a puppy named Bob. However, Tom also had a terrible time with his borrowed wetsuit when he had to wait six hours and climb a hill before he could use a bathroom. The trip to Nepal taught Tom what he believes is the epitome of travel. For him, travel is not what you think is going to happen, or how you act with who you meet - sometimes, you are just a subject of the environment around you, and you just have to roll with it and have the right attitude, and you will have a positive experience.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Dealing with bad things that happen, in travel as well as in life, is not always easy. Rolling with the punches and keeping a positive attitude, however, can get you anywhere.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">0:42 - Hayden wonders how different people handle situations that have gone wrong, that you have no control over, that take everything out of you.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">2:17 - Hayden introduces Tom Butler, a great friend of his, and the two begin to discuss living a life of travel and how to cope with settling down after that life.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">5:23 - Tom reminisces on the time he viewed England from an airplane and realized this was his home; it could never give him everything he needed, but it was still beautiful, lush and green.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">8:38 - Hayden was inspired to travel by Tom’s documented travels. He and Tom then begin discussing Tom’s own inspirations and origins, and Tom offers advice to those who do not have confidence in their own ability to travel.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">14:10 - Hayden starts introducing Tom’s story, which takes place in Nepal, and is titled “Without a Paddle”.</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Tom went to Nepal and sought out adventure sports - specifically, a rafting tour. In their tour, spending a good six hours on a raft, they befriended their fellow travelers and learned a great deal about the rivers and the cultures. They also met a puppy, name of Bob.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Tom also almost had a terrible time with his borrowed wetsuit, where he was in a bad place - but had to wait six hours in the raft and climb a hill before he could use a bathroom, and he started to laugh when the relief actually came. Tom discusses the epitome of travel and how he felt it during this trip to Nepal.</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">30:26 - Hayden and Tom break down and discuss the rather harrowing journey Tom had in Nepal.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">34:20 - Tom and Hayden talk about how you deal with bad things that happen, in travel as well in life. Tom offers advice on this, referencing his own mindset when such a situation would arise. Hayden shares his own experience of the time he went hitchhiking in India.</span></li> </ul> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at:</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href="http://www.codycrabb.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website:</span> <a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Works By N.L. Mello</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Add Hayden on Snapchat at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">travelstoriesuk</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check us out on Facebook at:</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href= "https://www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast">Travel Stories Podcast</a></span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Season 2, Episode 11:</span> <a href= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/episodes/s02e11-hayden-lee-love-ganges/"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">“Love on the Ganges”</span></a></li> </ul>Listen:

S3E5: Marissa Brown - 'The Mystical Mayans’<p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Beliefs and rhythm are the common threads that connect people all over the world, from Utah to Chichen Itza, from the ancient Mayans to the modern Americas. Marissa Brown, a Utah, United States native who studies music and enjoys world percussion, comes to Hayden to share the stories that taught her how similar humans of different cultures and times really are.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Hayden and Marissa discuss world percussion and the beats that cultures bring to the worldwide table of rhythm. They toy with starting a band, but move on to talking about how music fits in with travel in Marissa’s life. She learned a while ago that the best way for her to find herself was to lose herself, just for a little while. Marissa discusses the feelings brought to her by visiting ancient sites, how those feelings changed her afterwards, and the levels of happiness she experienced at the time.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The not-so-hidden gem of this episode is titled “The Mystical Mayans” by Marissa; in it, she talks about the time she visited the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, to the heavily-populated site called Chichen Itza, an ancient Mayan city, which had a huge temple. She went on a tour with a local who gave her a personal perspective on the area, his home. She also went to Ek’ Balam, a true hidden gem, and climbed a thousand steps to the top of an ancient ruin.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">While Marissa was in Mexico, she saw temple sites, marriage altars, baptismal fonts, and realized that these people, who lived so far away from Jerusalem, believed such similar things to the people there, and she saw the people living in Mexico, and she learned that people all over the world weren’t so different from one another. Beliefs and rhythms connected them, and Marissa could feel a new beat starting in her heart.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">1:50 - Hayden talks about how every place in the world has a different beat, a different rhythm to play and dance to.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">4:23 - Hayden introduces Marissa Brown, a musician who caught the travel bug. She participates in world percussion, the rhythm that brings the group together. Hayden and Marissa discuss drum beats from different areas and how their distinct beats can be associated with certain cultures and feelings.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">10:00 - Hayden and Marissa talk about how music fits in with travel in Marissa’s life. Marissa thinks the best way to find yourself is actually to lose yourself, just for a little while, as she learned on her mission call to Louisiana.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">16:26 - Marissa introduces her story, “The Mystical Mayans”, in which she travels to the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">First, Marissa goes to a heavily-populated site called Chichen Itza, an ancient Mayan city, which had a huge temple. She also went on a tour with a local who was able to give his personal perspective on his home, including a history of the area and how it compares to the area now.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The next place Marissa went was Ek' Balam, on a tour of this “hidden gem” with her family; they climbed to the top of this ancient ruin, up a thousand steps, where they could see over the jungle.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Marissa saw temple sites, marriage altars, baptismal fonts, and realized that these people, who lived so far away from Jerusalem, believed such similar things to the people there, and she saw the people living in Mexico, and she learned that people all over the world weren’t so different from one another. Marissa decided she wanted to learn more about the world around her, because she felt that there was something so much greater than her outside of her immediate bubble of her private life.</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">33:04 - Marissa and Hayden break down her story. They talk about the symbolism and the feelings of the Mayan sites she visited, and why and how these feelings changed her afterwards.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">36:36 - Hayden asks Marissa why she thinks seeing historical sites and cultures is better than swimming with the dolphins; Marissa explains the levels of happiness that each of the different activities brings.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">43:00 - Hayden and Marissa talk about the music of different countries and how playing it and recording it is so different than the music of your hometown.</span></li> </ul> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at:</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href="http://www.codycrabb.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website:</span> <a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Works By N.L. Mello</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Add Hayden on Snapchat to follow his journey through Brazil at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">travelstoriesuk</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check us out on Facebook at:</span> <a href= "https://www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out some of Marissa’s moments on her YouTube channel:</span> <a href= "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMIhb80upbI57FSU0Ytk1-g"><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Marissa Moments</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out more of Marissa’s moments on her blog:</span> <a href= "http://moremarissamoments.blogspot.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">More Marissa Moments</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Friend Marissa on Facebook and message her at:</span> <a href= "https://www.facebook.com/marissa.j.brown?fref=ts"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Marissa Brown</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Support Marissa on GoFundMe at:</span> <a href= "https://www.gofundme.com/marissainghana"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Marissa in Ghana</span></a></li> </ul>Listen:

S3E4: Richard Bruschi - 'Finding Myself'<p style="text-align: center;">Solitude, silence, and peace are craved by many when they are traveling. However, many others desire companionship instead, wanting someone to share their experiences with. Richard Bruschi has a healthy dose of both, but it was solitude that helped him to truly find himself.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Richard Bruschi is a writer for Sonderers Magazine, which functions on the idea that everyone has a story, no matter how modest their experience is or unexciting their life is. Everybody has a story, everybody has a life, everybody has thoughts, and that is a beautiful thing; Sonderers operates under that belief. Richard is, as described by Hayden, very cerebral in nature, and he and Hayden deep-dive into a variety of subjects throughout the interview, eventually ending up in a rabbit hole of conversation. Richard has done a considerable amount of traveling in his life, from the United States to Italy to Nottingham, and his experiences have impacted him greatly. Richard believes that there are opportunities everywhere if you just know where to look and how to prioritize. “Money is always out there to be made and caught,” Richard says, roughly paraphrasing Roald Dahl’s</span> <em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Charlie and the Chocolate Factory</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">, “but experiences - once you miss them, you’re not sure you can have them again.”</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Richard’s adventure, titled “Finding Myself,” takes place in Alaska. While Richard was backpacking in Resurrection Bay, Alaska, in an effort to be alone in nature for as long as possible, he cautiously realized a great deal about himself. What he found out about himself also led him to realizing how well he and his brother really knew each other. In this, Richard realized that finding himself also involved finding someone else along the way.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Richard believes that he is a person first, and he is everything else second. Traveling and focusing on one worry at a time while you do it can really simplify your life and help you discover who you truly are as a person. Solitude can come in handy when the only person you really need to be alone with is yourself.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">0:41 - Hayden discusses the longing for solitude and peace that some have, as opposed to the desire for companionship that others have.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Richard Bruschi is a writer for Sonderers Magazine. You may remember (from S02E05) that Jeromy Slaby is a writer for the same magazine. Bruschi is very cerebral in nature, and he and Hayden deep-dive into a variety of subjects throughout the interview, eventually ending up in a rabbit hole of conversation.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">3:35 - Richard, speaking from the city of Nottingham, starts to discuss the metropolis and why he chooses to live there with Hayden.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">6:40 - Richard talks about his reasons for moving to Portland from Italy when his brother moved to Jerusalem, and his experiences while living there. This includes how the move led to his marriage and, soon, his baby.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">10:20 - Hayden and Richard discuss how to overcome making excuses not to travel, or not to move, or not to have experiences outside of your typical days. Richard believes there are opportunities everywhere if you just know where to look and how to prioritize. Hayden agrees, and also thinks that you need to remember that, at the end of the day, you’re going to be fine.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">17:28 - Richard starts to tell of his Alaskan adventure, which he has titled, “Finding Myself,” which he thinks is cliche but accurate, especially with how finding yourself is related to finding other people; in his case, the other person was his brother.</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Richard was backpacking in Resurrection Bay, Alaska, in an effort to be alone in nature for as long as possible. The simplicity made him realize a great deal about himself, however cautiously. After the third day, he realized he would have liked to have been able to share the experience. He knew that his brother would have understood, without Richard even needing to say a word.</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">25:17 - Richard and Hayden break down the story and discuss their cravings for solitude, as well as how that solitude makes them feel. They discuss how worries can become focused while you travel, and how much that can simplify your life and your being in those moments.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">30:40 - Hayden and Richard talk about distancing yourself from your career, finding yourself separate from your job, and discovering who you are as a person through travel.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">32:17 - Richard talks about Sonderers Travel Magazine, which he writes for. Sonderers functions on the idea that everyone has a story, no matter how modest their experience is or unexciting their life is.</span></li> </ul> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at:</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href="http://www.codycrabb.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website:</span> <a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Works By N.L. Mello</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Add Hayden on Snapchat to follow his journey through Brazil at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">travelstoriesuk</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check us out on Facebook at:</span> <a href= "https://www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out the Sonderers website right here:</span> <a href="http://www.sonderers.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Sonderers</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Sonderers on:</span> <a href= "https://www.instagram.com/sondererstravel/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Instagram</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Sonderers on:</span> <a href= "https://twitter.com/sondererstravel"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Twitter</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Sonderers on:</span> <a href= "https://www.pinterest.com/sondererstravel/sonderers-travel-photos/"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Pinterest</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Sonderers on:</span> <a href= "https://www.facebook.com/SonderersTravel/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Facebook</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out Richard's website at: <a href= "http://www.dreamschest.com">The Dreams' Chest</a></span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Email Richard at: richard@dreamschest.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;">Follow Richard on: <a href= "https://twitter.com/DreamsChest">Twitter</a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;">Follow Richard on: <a href= "https://www.instagram.com/dreamschest/">Instagram</a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;">Follow Richard on: <a href= "https://www.facebook.com/dreamschest">Facebook</a></li> </ul>Listen:

S3E3: Chris Duncan - 'Detoxing in Thailand the Wrong Way'<p style="text-align: right;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Finding the opportunity to travel is a struggle in itself. Finding the chance to also sustain yourself and control your own work life is an even more rare happening. Chris Duncan talks with Hayden about how to have your own mindset shift that can give you a life of travel outside of the corporate ladder.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Hayden reminds everyone to contact him or to visit the Travel Stories Podcast website if you would like to send in questions for the end-of-season Q&A if you want your questions answered, and/or if you want to try to win a GRAYL water filter. He discusses his reason for traveling before he introduces Chris Duncan, who he describes as a digital nomad and the master of building online businesses that can give you a life of travel.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Chris and Hayden discuss the mindset shift that helps a traveler run a freedom business, as well as how freedom businesses work and how to start one. They talk about breaking free of the script society has given you that everyone else around you seems to be following. Another hot topic is how to obtain both location freedom and financial freedom.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Chris’ story, “Detoxing in Thailand the Wrong Way,” is a captivating tale of Chris’ trip with his fiancee to a health retreat in Thailand, where they fasted and detoxed on an island. He had a unique experience, where he juiced and cleansed and had a mind-blowing trip that he remembers only bits and pieces of to this day. His humorous take on detox has to be heard to be believed.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Becoming a self-sustaining traveler and a freedom business owner is no small job. Chris Duncan offers advice on how to begin to live the life he has led, and how to follow your true passions while also running a business. If you want to travel, Chris can give advice; if you want to experience true travel freedom, Chris can get you started.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul> <li style="text-align: center;">2:04 - Don’t forget to contact Hayden or go to our website and send in questions for the end-of-season Q&A for the chance to get your questions answered and win a GRAYL water filter!</li> <li style="text-align: center;">3:44 - Hayden discusses his reason for traveling, which he believes is wanting to chase the freedom to go wherever you want. He wants to hear your reasons for traveling, too.</li> <li style="text-align: center;">4:35 - Hayden introduces Chris Duncan, who can be described as a digital nomad. Chris brings not only a story, but also tips for traveling, since he teaches people how to get paid to travel.</li> <li style="text-align: center;">7:14 - Hayden and Chris discuss how to obtain both financial freedom and location freedom. Chris also talks about “freedom businesses,” as well as how they work, how to start one, how to reduce your expenses, and what your work week should look like.</li> <li style="text-align: center;">13:49 - Hayden talks with Chris about having a mindset shift, where you have to move into a more entrepreneurial mindset in order to run a freedom business. They also discuss the possibility that travelers are more apt to move into that mindset.</li> <li style="text-align: center;">16:47 - Hayden and Chris talk about breaking free of the script that is given to you, since you do not necessarily have to follow any of the script that society gave you, that everyone else is following.</li> <li style="text-align: center;">19:36 - Chris begins to share his story, “Detoxing in Thailand the Wrong Way.”</li> </ul> <ul> <li style="text-align: center;">Chris went to a health retreat in Thailand with his fiancee, complete with a detox and a juice fast on a scorching island. The whole detox was a completely unique event that tripped him out bad, giving him a mind-blowing, psychedelic episode that lasted for days. Chris maintains that this is the worst way to do a detox, and he highly recommends it for anyone seeking an out-of-body experience.</li> <li style="text-align: center;">28:58 - Chris offers advice on how to become a self-sustaining traveler and/or a freedom business owner, like he has done. He believes that you should not get too caught up in the business side of things; rather, you should always stay true to yourself. He also thinks that you should not build a business around your passion, because, if you do, you cannot be true to yourself.</li> </ul> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at:</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href="http://www.codycrabb.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website:</span> <a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Works By N.L. Mello</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Add Hayden on Snapchat to follow his journey through Brazil at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">travelstoriesuk</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check us out on Facebook at:</span> <a href= "https://www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">You can connect with Chris at:</span> <a href= "http://www.freedombusinessbuilder.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">The Freedom Business Builder</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">You can also connect with Chris at:</span> <a href="http://www.christophermduncan.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Christopher M. Duncan</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Chris is just a guy, so come say hi on Facebook at:</span> <a href= "https://www.facebook.com/chrismduncan555"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Chris Duncan</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Reach out to the podcast on Facebook at:</span> <a href= "https://www.facebook.com/TotalFreedomPodcast/"><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Total Freedom Podcast</span></a></li> </ul>Listen:

S3E2: Jeff Baker - 'Can an Ocean Rise Up from the Desert?'<p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Welcome to Travel Stories Podcast, bringing you Immersive, Inspiring & International travel stories of freedom and adventure from world travelers as well as actionable travel tips. Let's dive in!</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">When you reach a certain age, many people think it becomes their job to settle down at home and leave the living to the young people. Jeff Baker is not one of those men. When Jeff and his wife reached that certain age, and they saw their kids doing fun and exciting things with their lives, they said to themselves, “Why can’t we have fun?” So, they gave away most of their belongings, sold their house, and decided to travel while they still could and share their adventures as they went. “It’s like we’re 25 again,” Jeff said of their travels, and he was right - their lives are not average, but they are adventurous.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;">Jeff is a radio host in his “typical” life, hosting the show Savory Road, which is part of an NPR public radio-affiliate station in Southern California. His philosophy is that everyone partakes in food, even if they do not partake in travel, so logic dictates that everybody who listens to his show can relate to it. Jeff knows that people seek narrative and reflection, just like they do when they come to the Travel Stories Podcast, so he strives to put that into each of his shows.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">In between talking with Hayden about starting your travels, working through your financing, and managing the travel lifestyle, Jeff shares a story which he believes addresses expectations. While he considers expectations to be a double-edged sword, he also knows they are important to any travel experience. His story, titled, “Can an Ocean Rise Up From the Desert?”, follows Jeff as he visits the less-traveled parts of Peru and realized that reaching the “next level” of travel does not necessarily need to be any specific event, but can just be what it is.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Jeff Baker knows that bravery, optimism, and having an open mind while you travel are vital to having an enjoyable experience. Even though you may reach a certain age, and society may expect certain things of you - in the end, you live your own life, and travel is an essential part of that rebirth.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">1:16 - Stay tuned for live streaming on our Facebook while Hayden is in Brazil, and you can ask questions for the end of season Q&A at</span> <a href= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/contact-the-team/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">our website</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">2:32 - Hayden introduces Jeff Baker, who hosts a travel and food show on a local NPR affiliate radio station. He’s one of those people who reached a certain age and thought, “What do we do now?”, and the answer was, inevitably, “travel.” Jeff also has a great, baritone, radio-esque voice that Hayden very much enjoys.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">6:27 - Hayden and Jeff talk about starting your adventures and your fun, exciting travel life even when other people your age think you should not be. It all started with a family backpacking trip through Europe in 2004, and Jeff caught the travel bug from there.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">9:00 - Hayden talks about working with your finances and making big decisions in order to figure out how to travel in your life, and how not to give in to excuses.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">12:00 - Hayden and Jeff discuss the benefits to having both the “typical” suburban lifestyle and the adventurous travel lifestyle, and how you can manage merging those worlds.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">14:58 - Jeff’s story addresses expectations, which he considers a double-edged sword. Jeff titled the story “Can an Ocean Rise Up From the Desert?”</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Jeff visited the less-traveled Peru on his quest to become a master traveler while he was spending a month journeying through South America. Jeff went to a plantation in Peru, and met a man who had lived in Atlanta for a few years, so he knew fluent English. The plantation was beautiful, and the scenario around it astounding and mesmerizing, even though the roosters liked to keep him awake.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Jeff and his group traveled to Paracas and saw, quite frankly, a whole lot of nothing - no life, they said; acres and acres of flat, sandy nothingness. They saw a number of locations - La Mina Beach, Red Beach - and Jeff was captivated by the sea and the far-off mountains. Jeff could not remember the last time he felt such a sense of rightness. It was here that Jeff realized that reaching the “next level” of travel does not necessarily need to be any specific event, but can just be what it is.</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">28:06 - Jeff talks about finding answers to the questions he has asked himself and the decisions he has made in his travel life.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">31:16 - Hayden and Jeff discuss the necessity behind bravery, optimism, and having an open mind while you travel.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">36:51 - Jeff talks about his radio show, Savory Road, which is part of an NPR public radio-affiliate station in Southern California. His philosophy is that everyone partakes in food, even if they do not partake in travel, so logic dictates that everybody who listens to his show can relate to it. You can listen to his show on 91.9 FM in the Riverside-San Bernardino county area, or you can listen online at the links listed below.</span></li> </ul> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at:</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href="http://www.codycrabb.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website:</span> <a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Works By N.L. Mello</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Add Hayden on Snapchat to follow his journey through Brazil at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">travelstoriesuk</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check us out on Facebook at:</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href= "https://www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast">Travel Stories Podcast</a></span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Listen to Savory Road online at:</span> <a href="http://kvcrnews.org/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">KVCR News</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">or at:</span> <a href="http://www.savoryroad.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Savory Road</span></a></li> </ul>Listen:

S3E1: Laura Bingham - '7000 Km, No Money, What Now?'<p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Welcome to Travel Stories Podcast, bringing you Immersive, Inspiring & International travel stories of freedom and adventure from world travelers as well as actionable travel tips. Let's dive in!</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Sometimes, you have to take a leap of faith when you travel. Oftentimes, that faith has to be in humanity itself, and in the humans who inhabit the places you are traveling to. Those people are the ones who can make or break your trip - and, sometimes, they are the ones who prove that humanity really is not all that bad.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Laura Bingham visits Hayden and proves to be not only “incredibly fun to talk to,” to quote Hayden, but also incredibly brave and strong in her faith in humanity. Laura traveled from one side of South America to the other, on a bicycle, with no money, in six months. She depended on the kindness of strangers to help her survive. Laura discusses not only this trip, but also her documentary, how she learned to be patient, and “imposter syndrome” - believing you are an imposter because you feel like you do not deserve something you have or something you are doing.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Laura’s story, titled “7000 Kilometers, No Money, What Now?”, starts in Peru, and proves Laura’s faith in humanity correct when she meets people who prove to be the best of her entire journey. Laura and Hayden also discuss trusting strangers, and Laura goes on to discuss Operation South America. Operation South America is a charity based in Paraguay, created by an Englishman named Phil Granger who met a married couple who had lost their nine-year-old son to a rare type of leukemia because they did not have the money or the treatment to save him. After they met, they started this organization for young girls that are from broken, violent, or poor backgrounds.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">A leap of faith is required when you travel, but if you just take that leap, your adventure might turn out to be something you never expected - and prove to reveal the best of the people around you.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">3:19 - Hayden introduces Laura Bingham, who happened to have been born in the same hospital as him.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">5:48 - Laura discusses her documentary, in which she is trying to showcase the kindness of strangers and of humanity by crossing South America with no money.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">9:06 - Hayden and Laura talk about “imposter syndrome” - believing you are an imposter because you feel like you do not deserve something you have or something you are doing.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">12:48 - Hayden and Laura discuss how Laura decided not to return not to England, even when she earned enough money to return home, and then had to take a boat home over two months, which forced her to learn patience.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">16:25 - Laura begins to tell her story, which started in Peru, which she calls “7000 Kilometers, No Money, What Now?”</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Once Laura was with people who showed her kindness, she did not want to return to life all by herself again, but she knew she had to finish her journey. The relationships she made there were so strong that they still exist today.</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">25:00 - Hayden and Laura break down how Laura felt in her story, and how they feel about trusting strangers.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">31:26 - Laura discusses Operation South America, a charity based in Paraguay, created by an Englishman named Phil Granger who met a married couple who had lost their nine-year-old son to a rare type of leukemia because they did not have the money or the treatment to save him. After they met, they started this organization for young girls that are from broken, violent, or poor backgrounds.</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">You can get involved by donating to the crowdfunding pages pinned on Laura’s social media (posted below), or visiting the website, and everything goes straight to these children.</span></li> </ul> </li> </ul> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li>Check out our website at: <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/">Travel Stories Podcast Online</a></li> </ul> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li>Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at: hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</li> </ul> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li>Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at: <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</a></li> </ul> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li>All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website: <a href= "http://www.codycrabb.com">CodyCrabb.com</a></li> </ul> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li>All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website: <a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/">Works By N.L. Mello</a></li> </ul> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li>Add Hayden on Snapchat to follow his journey through Brazil at: travelstoriesuk</li> </ul> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li>Check us out on Facebook at: <a href= "https://www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast">Travel Stories Podcast</a></li> </ul> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li>Visit Operation South America at: <a href= "http://www.operationsouthamerica.org/">Operation South America</a></li> </ul> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li>Like Laura Bingham on Facebook at: <a href= "https://www.facebook.com/laurabingham93">Laura Bingham</a></li> </ul> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li>Follow Laura Bingham on Twitter at: <a href= "https://twitter.com/laurabingham93">@laurabingham93</a></li> </ul> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li>Follow Laura Bingham on Instagram at: <a href= "https://twitter.com/laurabingham93">laurabingham93</a></li> </ul> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li>Check out Laura’s website at: <a href= "http://www.laurabingham.org/">LauraBingham.org</a></li> </ul> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li>Check Laura out on Wikipedia at: <a href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Bingham">Laura Bingham</a></li> </ul>Listen:

HTJ008: Wasn't Born To Follow (Hayden's Travel Journal)<p style="text-align: center;">In this episode of Hayden's Travel Journal, we rejoin Hayden on his motorcycle journey as he enters the mountains in central Vietnam. </p> <p style="text-align: center;">It's not all easy riding, as Hayden finds out, encountering buses, trucks and realising why everyone said "DO NOT DO THIS JOURNEY" on the research he did before going. The roads are certainly not for everyone, and one small mistake can mean either a devastating accident or a memorable story.</p> <p style="text-align: center;">Plenty of stories about the views and experiences on this journey coupled with tips about doing this type of travel make this journal entry an interesting instalment.</p> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li>Check out our website at: <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/">Travel Stories Podcast Online</a></li> <li>Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at: hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</li> <li>Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at: <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</a></li> <li>All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website: <a href= "http://www.codycrabb.com/">CodyCrabb.com</a></li> <li>All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website: <a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/">Works By N.L. Mello</a></li> <li>Pictures can be found at our website: <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/">Travel Stories Podcast</a></li> <li>Add Hayden on Snapchat to follow his journey through Brazil at: travelstoriesuk</li> <li>Check us out on Facebook at: <a href= "https://www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast">Travel Stories Podcast</a></li> </ul> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p>Listen:

S2E12: Katharine Elliot - 'Angel in Pink'<p style="text-align: center;">Putting your faith in the universe, and letting your mind and body take over in order to free your soul, can sometimes be essential to traveling. Your adventure may not be complete if you are too aware of yourself. Katharine “Kate” Elliot had an angel in pink tell her she had to learn to let the universe guide her, and that has granted her some of her greatest travel moments.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Let Hayden tell you about how some cool stuff that will be going down next week before Kate brings up her book,</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">A Camino of the Soul: Learning to Listen When the Universe Whispers</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">. Her and Hayden discuss paying attention to all the messages the world is sending you, and how to follow those messages and listen to the universe. She talks about she wrote her book, and what led her to discovering her writing.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The highlight, her story “Angel in Pink,” follows Kate as she hits a dark moment, believing she had lost her path in the universe. She felt like she was drowning, aching, and her doubts and fears started to choke her; the world around her started to lose meaning, after her divorce, during her Camino, and she wanted to be able to cleanse herself of her hurt. An angel in pink - an elderly Spanish woman dressed in a light pink Sunday suit and pearls - spoke to her, more in spirit than in language, and told her to walk her path in faith. Kate’s faith in the universe was restored by her angel.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Hayden and Kate continue into discussing how to let your brain and your body take you over, and how to let your spirit float free and be at the whims of yourself and of the universe. If you put your faith in the universe, you can be guided along your path to adventure to your destined destination.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">1:30 - Hayden talks about how some cool stuff will be happening next week!</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">4:00 - Kate talks about how she started paying attention to all the messages out in the world, and how that led to her learning to listen to the universe, follow her heart, and write this book.</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Kate encourages listeners to be in the now; if you accept things as they happen, then, someday, you will know why they are happening.</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">9:33 - Kate talks about her book and how she started writing it when her mother-in-law and close friend passed away, and how it carries through her walking Northern Spain’s Camino.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">12:07 - Kate’s story begins; it takes place in Spain, just outside León. It’s a Camino story, and she calls it: “Angel in Pink”.</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Kate was walking the Camino, and, for the first time, she was starting to feel like she didn’t belong; she was beginning to lose her belief in her path in the universe. She stopped outside a cafe, and she heard a voice greet her; she looked directly at an elderly Spanish woman dressed in a light pink Sunday suit and pearls. The woman spoke to Kate, speaking in words Kate understood in spirit more than in language. Kate understood, through her angel in pink, that she had to trust that she was walking the Camino as she was supposed to, and she had to have faith that the universe knew what she was doing.</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">23:51 - “Nothing in our life happens out of order.”</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">25:45 - Hayden and Kate discuss being taken over by your brain and your body, and when and how to decide when to let yourself be at your own whims and at the whims of the universe, letting your spirit float free.</span></li> </ul> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at:</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href="http://www.codycrabb.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website:</span> <a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Works By N.L. Mello</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">You can find Kate’s book on Amazon at:</span> <a href= "https://www.amazon.com/Camino-Soul-Learning-Universe-Whispers-ebook/dp/B01DTAKQUG"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">A Camino of the Soul: Learning to Listen When the Universe Whispers</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out Kate on Facebook at:</span> <a href= "https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009262487458&fref=ts"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Katharine Elliot</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out Kate’s blog at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;"><a href= "http://walkingwomanwalkingwithkate.blogspot.com">Walking Woman- Walking with Kate</a></span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Find books like “I Can See Clearly Now” and “Power of Intention” by Dr. Wayne Dyer at:</span> <a href= "http://www.drwaynedyer.com/products/format/books/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Dr. Wayne Dyer’s Books</span></a></li> </ul>Listen:

HTJ007: Seeing Sounds in Saigon (Hayden’s Travel Journal)<p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Traveling yourself is vastly different from hearing stories, or seeing pictures, even though those are fine substitutes. However, nothing can pair up to the real thing, a fact Hayden learned for certain while he was in Vietnam.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Hayden shares a message from Billy and calls for people to send him messages, and lets us know about his intentions towards Snapchat and Facebook Live while he is traveling in Brazil. He also introduces Cody Crabb, the composer for Travel Stories Podcast, and they discuss scores Cody has done for past episodes, how Cody writes the scores for episodes, and how important scores and music are to stories and media. Most importantly, however, Cody answers Hayden’s question of, “John Williams or Danny Elfman?”</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Hayden as he tries cacao for the first time, sees the most spiders he has ever found in one place, tells a waitress she is beautiful, and gets a scroll illustrated by a blind monk. He also visits a very “businessman” hotel to treat himself, and shares his experiences with synesthesia - in Hayden’s case, the ability to see sounds. You may not be able to visit Vietnam, but Hayden’s travel journal entry just might be the next best thing.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at:</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href="http://www.codycrabb.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website:</span> <a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Works By N.L. Mello</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Pictures can be found at our website:</span> <a href="http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Add Hayden on Snapchat to follow his journey through Brazil at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">travelstoriesuk</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check us out on Facebook at:</span> <a href= "https://www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast</span></a></li> </ul>Listen:

S2E11: Hayden Lee - 'Love on the Ganges'<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">If you change your thinking, you can change your actions. Hayden wholeheartedly believes in this philosophy, and it was this philosophy that led him to trying to never say no. It was his decision to always say yes to adventures that led him to his love on the Ganges.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Hosted by Jackie Nourse of The Budget-Minded Traveler, Hayden Lee shares how he started the Travel Stories Podcast, how sharing stories can help bring a place or a feeling to someone who has never experienced it, and how to integrate your travel life with your daily life. He also talks about catching dengue fever, the growth travel can bring you, and the way to capitalize on the roles you take on while you travel. He believes in “minis,” or mini-romances, as much as he believes in saying yes to everything, and finding perfect moments while traveling. Most of all, though, Hayden believes in love at first sight.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Hayden’s main attraction is his story, “Love on the Ganges,” a riveting tale of the time Hayden nearly died in the Ganges River while in the Himalayas, and how survival meant making a soul connection with a woman who did not share his language, but did share with him her name. Hayden nearly died on the Ganges, but he came away with a story that brings indescribable feelings of wonder welling up. A soul connection was born in the Ganges, and left Hayden with the belief that if you just say yes, you will experience what you are meant to live.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">4:10 - Hayden talks about where it all started, and how he got into traveling in the first place.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">6:45 - Hayden goes on to discuss how he got dengue fever, as well as how much India has impacted him as a person.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">11:45 - Hayden talks about how stories can help to bring a place or a feeling to someone who has never experienced it. As he tells it, all of your senses go into an experience that can’t be contextualized without your story; when you tell the story to someone, you’re sharing all of your senses with them, and even sharing it with yourself.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">14:37 - Hayden considers coming back to normal life and integrating into your daily life the experiences that have changed you and molded during your travels. Primarily, he talks about attempting to hold on to your growth when you come back home.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">17:27 - Hayden discusses his goal in starting the Travel Stories Podcast, and how you hold on to the feeling of being a traveler through sharing your stories with those on the same wavelength as you. He believes you experience things differently than everyone else in your life and anyone else traveling and having their own adventures, so he likes to think of his listeners - and himself - as being able to live vicariously through the travel stories told on the podcast.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">22:21 - Hayden considers the roles that you have when you travel, and how best to foster your personal growth within your role when traveling and having your adventures. He and Jackie also talk about traveling on your own versus traveling with others, and “exploring yourself as you explore the world.”</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">27:07 - Hayden starts to tell his story, titled by Jackie as “Love on the Ganges”.</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Hayden was staying at a beach near the Ganges in the Himalayas when he was woken up by his friend to take a boat ride down the Ganges; because he has to say yes to everything, he agreed and went on the trip.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The boat trip got very choppy, and Hayden got flipped out into the Ganges when a wave hit his raft. Though this led to him being granted a feeling of absolute serenity as he floated down the Ganges, he was saved and met another victim of the river who he felt an instant connection with.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">He and this woman, who did not speak the same language and who only met twice, shared a soul connection that Hayden cannot give words to, except to describe how absolutely overwhelming it was.</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">39:32 - Jackie and Hayden talk about the moments you have as travelers that become perfect stories, perfect moments, suspended in time in your memories and in your hearts.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">41:18 - Hayden considers “minis”, or mini-romances, that often happen during your travels.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">44:56 - Hayden discusses why he chose this particular story to share on the episode where he got interviewed, and how he believes this story evokes certain experiences in people, particularly the feeling of wonder.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">46:05 - Hayden talks about the lessons and the morals of his story, primarily: “When you’re in a raft, go in the middle,” and “Say yes to everything.”</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">48:55 - Hayden considers how to make the change in your mind to just do something; all you have to do is change the wiring in your brain and you can really accomplish anything.</span></li> </ul> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at:</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href="http://www.codycrabb.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website:</span> <a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Works By N.L. Mello</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Jackie Nourse’s podcast, The Budget-Minded Traveler, can be found at:</span> <a href= "http://thebudgetmindedtraveler.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">The Budget-Minded Traveler</span></a></li> </ul>Listen:

HTJ006: Shed Your Skin (Hayden’s Travel Journal)<p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <p style="text-align: center;">Realizing that you may be seen as an ignorant or privileged traveler can be a blow, but if you just put yourself out there and try new things, you can overcome that image in a heartbeat. Hayden does exactly that as he drives in Vietnam, meets a snake “as thick as a Pringles tube, and twice as daunting,” and rowed a boat for a woman who had not taken a break all day. Hayden also has some serious adventures with food, including learning that you can live off just coconuts or just chili water, and finding a variety of American pets to snack on at a food market on the Mekong Delta. Show notes writer Nicole Mello also stops by to answer questions about what to do in Boston, and to explain the Boston Tea Party to Hayden.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li>Check out our website at: <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/">Travel Stories Podcast Online</a></li> <li>Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at: <a href= "mailto:hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</a></li> <li>Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at: <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</a></li> <li>All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website: <a href= "http://www.codycrabb.com">CodyCrabb.com</a></li> <li>All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website: <a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/">Works By N.L. Mello</a></li> <li>Pictures can be found at our website: <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com">Travel Stories Podcast</a></li> <li>Check out the Official Freedom Trail Podcast at their website: <a href= "http://www.thefreedomtrail.org/educational-resources/ftf-podcasts.shtml"> Official Freedom Trail Podcasts</a></li> <li>Add Hayden on Snapchat to follow his journey through Brazil at: travelstoriesuk</li> </ul>Listen:

S2E10: Sean Whitehead - 'Somebody 'Alp' Me'<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Fear is a paralyzing emotion, but, in the end, it can truly be your best motivator, and Sean Whitehead has firsthand experience with both ends of that double-edged sword. Sean is not only a friend of Hayden’s and the singer of the band that Hayden and previous guest Guy Earnshaw were once in, but he is also an avid traveler. Sean wants to share his story of traveling in the Alps, and how fear, a good friend, and a bar of Snickers got him to the top of a nearly sheer-faced mountain.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">First, Sean shares a tale of traveling to Brazil and ending up in a weird, dodgy neighborhood, where he was served an Americana pizza that came, not with meat and cheese on it, as you would expect; no, instead, it came with egg and peas on it. It was in Brazil that Sean learned that there is more to life than just doing things the easy way. He found that doing things you have never done before can only lead to adventure. He also tells a story about a self-drive tour he took with his friends in Iceland, how they took their own route around the country, and the amazing place in the mountains they found to watch the Northern Lights from.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Sean shares what he thinks on talking to new people when you’re in a new place in order to figure out where to go and what to do while you’re there, and when you should follow their advice. He also discusses how to decide what you are going to do when you are traveling. The highlight of Sean’s episode, however, is his story from Austria, aptly titled “Somebody ‘Alp’ Me,” a predictably punny name from Sean. Along the way, he and his friend John end up hiking in the Alps with no gear, a bottle of water, and a Snickers. Between them, they hike a kilometer and a half upwards, eat their one Snickers, drink their one bottle of water, have two panic attacks, but they manage to make it to the top alive. Though the fear was like nothing Sean had ever experienced, the adventure influenced his decisions in future travel, and he thinks he would not be the same now had it not been for that day.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">0:45 - Hayden shares a letter he got from a listener, and sends out a call for podcasts that discuss what there is to do in Boston.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">4:54 - Sean Whitehead comes into play after a long intro; he is a traveler, a friend of Hayden’s, and the singer of the band that Hayden and Guy Earnshaw were in.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">7:21 - Sean shares a tale of traveling to Brazil, his language barrier, ending up in a weird, dodgy neighborhood, and eating an Americana pizza that was not quite right.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">12:45 - Sean starts telling a story about a self-drive tour he took with his friends in Iceland. During the trip, they took their own route around the country, and found this amazing place in the mountains to watch the Northern Lights.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">14:53 - Sean discusses what he thinks about talking to new people when you’re in a new place in order to figure out where to go and what to do while you’re there, and when you should follow their advice.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">17:47 - Sean starts to share his story from Austria, which he calls “Somebody ‘Alp’ Me.”</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The story takes place on a European tour with a good friend of his named John, with whom Sean had the type of relationship where John comes up with ideas and Sean just goes with them, which can either lead them to an adventure or to a compromised situation. This was one of those compromised situations.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">They traveled to the Alps and found some people who spoke English and were ready to hike an easy trail for four hours, so they decided to hike, as well, literally just straight up the side of a mountain. They had no equipment, and they didn’t speak German, so they had to figure out where they had to go, and they were told to find a specific house in the mountains.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">They traveled through narrow, rocky tracks, iron stairs, steep paths, steep, sheer drops, and grassy banks, before reaching woods and, finally, the house. After a kilometer and a half upwards, two panic attacks between them, and the worst fear Sean has ever felt, they finally got to eat, sleep, and get back to the bottom.</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">34:15 - Sean and Hayden discuss the character of John in his story, and how his character can be applied to your traveling life and how to decide what you’re doing on your trip.</span></li> </ul> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at:</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href="http://www.codycrabb.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="text-align: center;">All show notes and writing for episodes by Nicole Mello, who can be found at her website: <a href= "http://worksbynlmello.tumblr.com/">Works By N.L. Mello</a></li> </ul>Listen:

HTJ005: 'Good morning, Vietnam!' (Hayden's Travel Journal)<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Welcome to Travel Stories Podcast, bringing you Immersive, Inspiring & International travel stories of freedom and adventure from world travelers as well as actionable travel tips. Let's dive in!</strong> </p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Hayden recounts his last day in Bali, and what makes Indonesia such a peaceful place to be, away from the advertisements, money and stress of daily western life. </span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">He goes on to Vietnam, meets and has connections with a lot of people that just moments before were complete strangers, and comes to revelations about life in Vietnam compared to other countries. He then gets given the opportunity to do something 'magical'. He doesn't know quite what it is yet, and has to make the decision to trust someone he just met. </span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at:</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href= "http://www.codycrabb.com"><span style="font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Pictures can be found at our website:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast</span></a></li> </ul>Listen:

S2E9: Richard Phu - 'Am I in the Movie 'Hostel'?'<p style="text-align: center;"> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">What is the secret to becoming your own Ultimate Man? What is the key to living a life with no regrets? How do you learn to follow your heart over your head? Richard Phu, of The Ultimate Man and the Forge Your Life podcast, comes with answers to these questions, along with questions of his own. How would you describe an ultimate man, and what is your purpose in life? These two are more tangled up than you might think. Richard leads us forth.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Richard Phu visits Hayden from Australia, where he is currently working on his online coaching business. The founder of The Ultimate Man and the Forge Your Life podcast, Richard discusses what the Ultimate Man really is; the true ultimate man is not any one set person, he tells us. Instead, this man is exactly what you want it to be. As long as you follow Richard’s five pillars - purpose, wealth, health, mindset, and love - you can achieve your own ultimate man.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Richard discusses with Hayden how his realization that he had to commit himself to living the most fulfilling life possible was connected to travel and freedom, and vice versa. He also brings forward a discussion featuring charity: water, a charity that works to bring sustainable, community-owned clean water projects around the world. Hayden and Richard go on to talk about how important it is to relinquish control and put trust and faith into the situation. Along with feelings of regret and disappointment regarding an experience you feel you missed while traveling, they talk about learning to listen to your heart and follow what it tells you.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The star of this episode, however, is Richard’s travel story, aptly named “Am I in the Movie ‘Hostel’?”, recounting a time when Richard visited Vienna, Austria by himself and got hopelessly and terrifyingly turned around in a hostel. It does not help that he keeps seeing men turn corners right ahead of him. The moral of Richard’s story? Sometimes, you get pushed into really scary situations, but it’s how you deal with it, how you fight through it, and how you deal with it that truly matters.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">4:48 - Richard asks Hayden, how would he describe the ultimate man? As it turns out, the ultimate man is what you want it to be, and not anything specific.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">6:10 - Hayden and Richard discuss the five pillars of the Ultimate Man, how to achieve each, and why each is so important to becoming your own ultimate man.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">10:24 - Richard answers the question, how is the commitment to living the most fulfilling life possible connected to travel and freedom? He discusses whether his realization of living a fulfilling life came from travel, or vice versa - did travel come from his realization?</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">16:08 - Richard talks about coming home from traveling and feeling like you can no longer relate to the people you left back home.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">19:20 - Richard starts telling his scary story from the time he went to Austria by himself, aptly named: “Am I in the Movie ‘Hostel?”</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Richard details his real-life horror story in Vienna, where he got lost in a hostel and could only just keep catching a guy turning the corner - or did he?</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The moral of his story is that sometimes you get pushed into really scary situations, but it’s how you deal with it, how you fight through it, and how you deal with it that really matters.</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">26:10 - How important is it to relinquish control and put trust and faith in something working? Can we just let it go and be okay with whatever happens?</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">29:52 - Hayden asks Richard to talk through how he feels about regret and disappointment when you miss something. Richard talks about learning to listen to your heart, and following your heart’s answers as often as you can.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">33:30 - Richard tells us more about his Forge Your Life podcast, which is an interview podcast where he pulls in modern-day thought leaders and up-and-coming experts with different perspectives.</span></li> </ul> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul> <li style="text-align: center;">Check out our website at: <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/">Travel Stories Podcast Online</a></li> <li style="text-align: center;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at: <a href= "mailto:hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</a></li> <li style="text-align: center;">Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at: <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</a></li> <li style="text-align: center;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website: <a href="http://www.codycrabb.com">CodyCrabb.com</a></li> <li style="text-align: center;">Visit Richard’s website at: <a href="http://www.richardphu.com">RichardPhu.com</a></li> <li style="text-align: center;">Check out the Forge Your Life podcast at: <a href= "https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/forge-your-life-podcast/id1086964949?mt=2"> Forge Your Life on iTunes</a></li> <li style="text-align: center;">Check out charity: water at: <a href= "https://donate.charitywater.org/donate/home">charitywater.org</a></li> </ul>Listen:

HTJ004: Eat, Pray, What? (Hayden's Travel Journal)<p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Hayden’s continued journeys, as recounted by his past self through his travel journal, begin with him being told: “This is where I kill you and tell everyone you were eaten by cow.” Hayden travels to a secret shipwrecked beach, to a place seemingly untouched by civilization.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">He journeys through a forest filled with monkeys and snakes, and comes to a tropical island, where time ceases to exist. He also finds another island with as many brothels as they are cows and five hundred of those monkey-and-snake-filled forests. After encountering a real-world version of the Hog Wild level of Crash Bandicoot, and getting wrestled by waves, Hayden even has an island romance - but let him tell you about those adventures, in his own words.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at:</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href="http://www.codycrabb.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Pictures can be found at our website:</span> <a href="http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast</span></a></li> </ul>Listen:

S2E8: John Lee Dumas - 'The Golden Palace'<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">What is the key to success? For John Lee Dumas, the one aspect of success that all entrepreneurs share is setting a good, specific goal for themselves. He shares tips and tricks, as well as advice in just getting out there and getting to work.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">John Lee Dumas, host of Entrepreneur on Fire and author of The Freedom Journal, calls in from Puerto Rico to talk with Hayden. He shares his unique step-by-step process that he details in the Freedom Journal, a guide that helps you to accomplish goals in a set time frame of one hundred days. He also discusses his podcast, Entrepreneur on Fire, sharing his mantra with us: “Do what you can’t not do.” It was this mantra that led him to creating a daily podcast in 2012, and it is this ideal that led him to doing his job well, providing his audience with free, valuable, consistent content, and seeing how the road has unfolded before him ever since.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">John also recounts a story, fondly titled “The Golden Palace,” detailing his journey from law school to India, where he spent four months traversing the country. His story takes place in Amritsar, in northern India, where he visited the Golden Palace, an awe-inspiring holy and sacred place, filled with religious shrines and shining with gold. Join John as he accompanies a couple of locals to a flag-lowering ceremony at the border of Pakistan and India, and views the unbelievably intricate ceremony, with about forty soldiers on both sides of the border gates where they lower the flags of their respective countries.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">“When I look back on India,” John shares, “there was a lot of highs, were definitely some lows, as anybody will experience traveling/backpacking for four months in a third world country. But when I do look back, that is definitely the memory that stands out most in my mind, and something that I will always treasure.”</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">John also shares tales of being in a Bollywood movie (search for John Lee Dumas Bollywood on YouTube - you can see the trailer for the movie), of breaking free of his scripted life, and of making the transition into the life he knew he wanted to live. He advises to start planning your trips now, and to start knocking them out as soon as possible.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">“So many of us think that we have an endless amount of time to travel the world,” John says, “but we don’t.”</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">4:22 - John discusses the Freedom Journal and tells us the one factor that all successful entrepreneurs share.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">6:25 - John begins to share his story, called “The Golden Palace”.</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Years ago, John was in law school, and he was miserable. So, he did the most courageous thing in his life up until that point - he quit law school.John then traveled to India, and spent the next four months traversing the country.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">This story takes place specifically in Amritsar, at the Golden Palace, a holy and sacred place which rendered John speechless when he visited it. He then journeyed on with a couple of Indian guys who studied at a local university and who invited him to part of a famous flag-raising and flag-lowering ceremony. Together, they drove out to the border of Pakistan and India, where there was an unbelievably intricate flag-lowering ceremony with about forty soldiers on both sides of the border gates where they lower the flags of their respective countries.</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">16:31 - Hayden and John discuss how you can break free of the scripted life that you know isn’t for you and make the transition to the life you want to live.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">17:33 - John discusses his daily podcast, Entrepreneur on Fire, and how the mantra “do what you can’t not do” made him the success he is today.</span></li> </ul> <p> </p> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li style="font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at: <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/">Travel Stories Podcast Online</a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at: <a href= "mailto:hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;">Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at: <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website: <a href="http://www.codycrabb.com">CodyCrabb.com</a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;">Check out Entrepreneur on Fire at: <a href="http://www.EOFire.com">EOFire</a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;">Check out The Freedom Journal at: <a href="http://thefreedomjournal.com/">The Freedom Journal</a></li> </ul>Listen:

HTJ003: Cats, Children’s Laughter, and Roosters (Hayden's Travel Journal)<p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Hayden returns with his travel journal, pulling an entry from when he arrived in Bali, Indonesia. His first day in Bali, being the perfect mixture of insane and awesome, sees him</span> <a href="https://www.couchsurfing.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">couchsurfing</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">, receiving a Thai massage, and fulfilling massive amounts of Bali stereotypes. He wakes up to the sounds of cats, children’s laughter, and roosters, and becomes very close with his two roommates. By the end of his four days, Hayden believes he is even able to predict his own inevitable death in Bali.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at:</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;"><a href= "http://www.codycrabb.com">CodyCrabb.com</a></span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Pictures can be found at our website:</span> <a href="http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast</span></a></li> </ul>Listen:

S2E7: Jason Moore - 'Thumbs Up'<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">When you travel, you never know who you will meet, or what kind of experiences you will have. Half the fun of adventuring is not knowing where you will be lead next, and Jason Moore is a firm believer in trying new things while you travel.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;">Jason Moore, a resident of Oslo, Norway, hosts the Zero to Travel podcast, because he hopes to help people achieve their desire to live a life of travel, and help them travel on their own terms. He also runs Location Indie, a podcast based on the community support system of people who want to work while they travel, work remotely, and live independently.</p> <p style="text-align: center;">Jason’s story, which he calls “Thumbs Up,” gives us an inside look at the life of a hitchhiker, through the eyes of Jason, his friend, Gary, and their hitchhiking race around Scotland. Join Jason on a 546-mile quasi-circumnavigation grassroots race around Scotland, where he goes wild camping, visits eight iconic Scottish checkpoints, and meets a number of people who changed his life, who you can hear about in detail in the story. Jason’s adventure traveling through Scotland was an experience which he called, in a word, “transformative”.</p> <p style="text-align: center;">When you travel, you can give as much as you take; you can give energy, stories, a listening ear, and, most importantly, companionship. You learn to trust, and you realize that people really are awesome. “Many things happen when you step out on the side of the road and stick your thumb out,” Jason says, “but I think the best thing is the reminder that we are all connected, and this world is filled with wonderful and kind souls.” If you ever see Gary, or anyone else, hitchhiking, consider pulling over and giving them a lift; you might be pleasantly surprised by what happens. And if you are the one traveling, try putting your thumb out sometime, and you might just learn something new about humanity.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Join Jason and Hayden as they learn to trust humanity and travel around Scotland for a time. You never know what you might learn about trust, humanity, and the energy that comes from hitchhiking.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">10:10 - Jason shares his thoughts on the traveler’s mindset, and how anyone in any position can have the traits and mindset of a traveler.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">13:38 - Jason discusses his podcast, Zero to Travel, which helps people achieve their desire to live a life of travel, and travel on their terms. He believes a love of travel is a value in life that everyone shares, and that a passion for travel isn’t really something that really ever goes away.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">15:55 - Jason tells us more about his community and his other podcast, both named Location Indie. He tells us about the community support system of people who want to work while they travel, work remotely, and live independently.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">18:37 - Jason Moore begins to tell his story, which he has titled: “Thumbs Up”.</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">He reminds us that, if you don’t make time for travel, it just doesn’t happen.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The main part of Jason’s story features a Scottish hitchhiking race, beginning on May 1, 2014, and continuing for several days on an epic 546-mile quasi-circumnavigation around Scotland. He had to visit eight iconic Scottish checkpoints on the way and get photo evidence of each checkpoint.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Jason shares the stories of his rides, including Barry, in a service van; Nick, a big burly farm boy with an odd metal machine; Anka, who gave them a world-class meal; Duncan, who just bought a boat named</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Nomad</span></em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">; Julia, who drove out of her way to get them to the next town; and Wendy, who wanted to open a bed-and-breakfast.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">For Jason, the race was all about the experience; he says that three days thumbing around Scotland was nothing short of transformative for him, as he had to depend on the kindness of strangers and hope for the best.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Jason wonders if hitchhiking provided more opportunities for authentic connections, or if he was simply more open to connecting with people?</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">32:56 - Did hitchhiking change how Jason sees people in general, and how did it remind him of trust and humanity?</span></li> </ul> <p> </p> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;"><a href= "mailto:hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</a></span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at:</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href= "http://www.codycrabb.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Jason Moore hosts the Zero to Travel Podcast, which you can see at:</span> <a href="http://zerototravel.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Zero to Travel</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><strong><span style= "font-weight: 400;">The Norwegian online market can be found here:</span> <a href="http://m.finn.no/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Finn.no</span></a></strong></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">You can find the Location Indie community here:</span> <a href= "http://locationindie.com"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Location Indie</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Learn more about wild camping at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;"><a href= "https://www.pitchup.com/en-us/wild-camping/">Pitchup Wild Camping</a></span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Pencils of Promise, the organization Jason did fundraising for as part of his race, can be found at:</span> <a href="https://pencilsofpromise.org/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Pencils of Promise</span></a></li> </ul>Listen:

HTJ002: Pay It Forward (Hayden's Travel Journal)<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">When we last left Hayden and his travel journal, he was leaving Queensland for Brisbane, with the intent to catch a plane to Indonesia. With nowhere to be and nothing to his name but what he has on his back, he spent the entire day in Brisbane on foot. It was here that he learned to pay it forward from a busy mother who wanted to do something kind, along with encountering a couple other kind characters who populate this rich, inspiring tale of humanity in Brisbane.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at:</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href="http://www.codycrabb.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Pictures can be found at our website:</span> <a href="http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast</span></a></li> </ul>Listen:

S2E6: Daniel Venn - 'May I Have a Towel, Please?'<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">To make a difference in the world, you do not have to make a major impact. You do not have to bring water to an entire country; you do not have to feed entire villages; you just have to make someone smile once a week. This is exactly what Daniel Venn does with his nonprofit organization, Helping Kids Round First, which he discusses with Hayden.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Daniel Venn works with Helping Kids Round First, doing fantastic work with kids. They collect donated baseball equipment in the United States, and give the donations to children in Nicaragua. They give children the opportunity to have a childhood in a country that does not often afford that chance, and gives them the opportunity to escape poverty through baseball. Dan also discusses the book he wrote and published,</span> <em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Beyond Baseball - Rounding First</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">, representing his trip to Nicaragua with Helping Kids Round First. They work with the nonprofit organization to bring baseball, sustainable agriculture, and hospital supplies to Nicaragua.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Join Daniel Venn as he describes the smell of his childhood (warning: it is not a pleasant one), recounts how baseball brought him around the world, and shares anecdotes that detail why it really is important to learn the specific language of the area you are visiting before you go, just in case. Make sure you know how to say “towel” and “uncle” correctly, and have suitcases with children’s books and old men’s underwear on hand, or else you might not end up on the trip you thought you were going to go on.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Daniel handed out equipment village by village, meeting the young kids and adults whose lives he was changing through Helping Kids Round First. He realized how you could change the world with just a baseball bat and a smile. “Travel has become less about the places that I see,” Daniel shares with us, “and more about the people that I meet and the relationships that I form.”</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">5:35 - How did baseball bring Daniel Venn all around the world, and how did his “what the heck” moment that originally brought him to Costa Rica - and then eventually to Nicaragua with Helping Kids Round First?</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">8:20 - Daniel discusses the nonprofit organization, Helping Kids Round First, and his book,</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Beyond Baseball - Rounding First</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">13:00 - Daniel is a rambler, but he does start to tell his story, which he calls: “May I Have A Towel, Please?”</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Daniel had to stay at a hotel in Costa Rica and believed he had enough Spanish to confidently ask for a towel from the attendant, but he mixed up a couple of his words. This language experience made him hesitant to speak to the Nicaraguan border agents, when they were getting all of their bags searched by security, and had to protect all their equipment from getting taken.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">A suitcase filled with children’s books and a bag filled with an old man’s underwear ended up saving the trip.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Daniel and his team handed out equipment village by village, meeting young kids along the way who had been training hard for just this chance to come, and meeting with farmers to teach them sustainable farming processes and how to water their plants despite the drought.</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">22:54 - Hayden shares an anecdote about his Brazilian ex-girlfriend and a Portuguese language mishap he made. Daniel and Hayden relate over the fact that pronunciation is everything in these languages, and Daniel shares another anecdote related to that.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">25:50 - How did Daniel’s perception of America and baseball in America and childhood in America change after working with Helping Kids Round First? What other experiences have shifted Daniel’s worldview?</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">“Travel has become less about the places that I see, and more about the people that I meet and the relationships that I form.”</span></li> </ul> </li> </ul> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <p style="text-align: center;"><img src= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/2016-06-02-21.26.21.jpg" alt="Hayden's birthday cake!" width="500" height="500" /></p> <p style="text-align: center;">Hayden's birthday cake!</p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at:</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href="http://www.codycrabb.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Find all the info about Helping Kids Round First at:</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href= "http://www.helpingkidsroundfirst.org">HelpingKidsRoundFirst.org</a></span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Visit Dan’s website to purchase his book - a portion of every purchase through the website goes to Helping Kids Round First - at his website:</span> <a href= "http://www.danvenn.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">DanVenn.com</span></a></li> </ul>Listen:

HTJ001: Queensland Gold Mining (Hayden's Travel Journal)<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">In a more adventurous and intimate turn, Hayden starts to read straight from his travel journal in the beginning of his Hayden’s Travel Journal series. As Hayden is a notorious journalist, the details and the personality really come through, following him and his journals from gold-mining, to island romances, to biking through Vietnam, and even further beyond. He almost died twice, but lived to tell the tale, here in these podcasts.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Hayden is the type to go off-script (or, off-journal, as it were), but he figured, why not share his stories with the world? And this one starts in Melbourne, when he gets a call from his friend in Queensland, who was going into gold-mining full-time. Join Hayden as he tries to avoid a venomous demise from a redback spider, encounters a pig truck that makes it easy to be a vegetarian, and recounts one of the most horrific anecdotes he believes he has ever recounted.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at:</span> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at:</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href="http://www.codycrabb.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Pictures can be found at our website:</span> <a href="http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast</span></a></li> </ul>Listen:

S2E5: Jeromy Slaby - 'A Failed Search'<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Have you ever realized that someone walking past you in the street has a life of their own? A passerby glances at you, and you realize - they have loved, they have lost, and they have a wild life of their own, just like you.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Jeromy Slaby, a Chicago resident and the co-founder of Sonderers Magazine, named his online travel magazine after exactly that phenomenon. He has a goal - to bring humanity back together, one step at a time. Jeromy shows up to discuss the definition of “sonder”, the smell of his childhood (and how that led him to some truly great gelato), and why millennials travel the most out of any generation, nowadays.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Jeromy’s feature is his travel anecdote about his adventure to the jungles of Panama in the summer of 2014, when he volunteered to build a sustainable community with the Outdoor Recreation Program. The story is titled by him as “A Failed Search,” and he recounts trying to find the Mother Tree, making a choice when you come to a fork in the road, learning to trust another person, fighting a giant tarantula mound, and learning to trust yourself.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Jeromy offers advice on experiencing travel, the emotional impact of being in the middle of nowhere, and properly executing your travel plans. He helps you to make the realistic decision to travel, and teaches you what to prioritize. Join Jeromy and Hayden as they discover the further reaches of Panama and learn what it means to truly trust a stranger.</span></p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">3:45 - What is the definition of “sonder”, the inspiration for Jeromy’s travel magazine,</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Sonderers</span></em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">?</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">6:30 - What does your childhood smell like, as smell is one of those things that is so linked to memory?</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">7:30 - Jeromy shares an anecdote about getting lost, his childhood smells. and Nutella gelato.</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">8:50 - Why is it that millennials travel the most out of any generation? The world is becoming more international - is it a major cultural shift, or is it something else?</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">14:16 - Jeromy Slaby starts to recount his story of Panama, self-titled as “A Failed Search”, and detailing Jeromy’s time volunteering in the jungles of Panama in the summer of 2014, hiking, and learning to trust yourself.</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The primary goal of his expedition was to find the Mother Tree, but he ended up learning what it means to make a choice when you come to a fork in the road.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">What allows you to go out on a limb and trust another person - a stranger, even?</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">25:45 - Jeromy answers the question: ‘Does being a writer change how you experience travel?’</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">26:51 - What is the impact of the feeling of being in the middle of nowhere? Most importantly, what is there to this experience that makes it so special and freeing?</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">29:00 - Jeromy offers advice on how to execute your travel plans, and how to get the whole process of traveling started.</span></li> <li style="list-style: none; display: inline;"> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">How do you make the realistic decision to travel?</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">What do you have to prioritize?</span></li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">32:00 - Jeromy discusses an article on solidarity that is featured on Sonderers.com, which you can find</span> <a href= "http://www.sonderers.com/may-the-power-of-people/solidarity"><span style="font-weight: 400;"> here</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></li> </ul> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Check out our website at:</span> <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Travel Stories Podcast Online</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at:</span> <a href= "mailto:hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at:</span> <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">All musical composition and arrangement for story scores by Cody Crabb, who can be found at his website:</span> <a href="http://www.codycrabb.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">CodyCrabb.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Find Jeromy Slaby’s website right here:</span> <a href="http://www.sonderers.com/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Sonderers</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Email Jeromy at:</span> <a href= "mailto:jeromy@sonderers.com"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">jeromy@sonderers.com</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Sonderers on:</span> <a href= "https://www.instagram.com/sondererstravel/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Instagram</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Sonderers on:</span> <a href= "https://twitter.com/sondererstravel"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Twitter</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Sonderers on:</span> <a href= "https://www.pinterest.com/sondererstravel/sonderers-travel-photos/"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Pinterest</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Follow Sonderers on:</span> <a href= "https://www.facebook.com/SonderersTravel/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Facebook</span></a></li> <li style="font-weight: 400; text-align: center;"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Read the article Jeromy discussed, written by Rachel Rueckert, here:</span> <a href= "http://www.sonderers.com/may-the-power-of-people/solidarity"><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Solidarity</span></a></li> </ul>Listen:

5 Travel Tips to Avoid Theft and Scams (Hayden's Travel Tips 008)<div> <p style="text-align: center;">Everyone has a healthy dose of paranoia when traveling - it can be a very good thing to have, because it means you tend to keep yourself safe. But it can be hard to know how, exactly, to keep your belongings safe from theft and scams.</p> </div> <div> <p style="text-align: center;">Hayden wants to make sure you stay safe, and that your money and your important stuff stays safe, too. He offers you five travel tips here for avoiding theft and scams while you travel, sharing personal stories and anecdotes and speaking from experience as he does.</p> <p style="text-align: center;">Your travel stories should never have to be cut short due to an unexpected mugging, scam, theft, stolen identity, wallet grab, or, God forbid, all of the above. Take advantage of these five travel tips to ensure your absolute freedom and peace of mind while adventuring. Tips like how to use a money belt, what fake items to carry with you, and popular scams that you might have otherwise fallen victim to can help you more than you know while you travel.</p> <p style="text-align: center;">If you take Hayden’s tips into account while traveling, and if you are prepared against travel scams, then you will absolutely enjoy your travels more, because you will not be nervous the whole time. His advice can give you peace of mind and a much better time traveling.</p> <br clear="none" /> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li>2:58 - Tip #1 - Use a money belt.</li> </ul> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li>If you have a wallet in your back pocket, it’s gonna get swiped fast, so you better start hiding that money belt under your t-shirt. Hayden even offers some bonus suggestions on the best ones to own and how to make sure you don’t lose them.</li> </ul> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li>4:44 - Tip #2 - Carry a fake wallet.</li> </ul> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li>When you get mugged, you can just give them the fake one with five bucks and a library card in it, then a third fake wallet, then a fourth - you could go on forever.</li> </ul> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li>5:52 - Tip #3 - Don’t carry too much cash.</li> </ul> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li>You up the risks when you carry a wad of cash, so Hayden offers some advice on how much cash to carry, and where to keep it when you have to carry it.</li> </ul> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li>6:55 - Tip #4 - Scan your passports, documents, important stuff.</li> </ul> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li>Sometimes, people want stuff other than your money, and if you lose your important documents, you might end up up the creek without a paddle. Hayden offers tips on what to do to keep your documents safe and backed up.</li> </ul> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li>8:11 - Tip #5 - Learn the popular scams, especially of the place that you’re going to.</li> </ul> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li>If you’re aware of these things that could happen, then you’ll be prepared when it happens. Things like a broken taximeter, some free bracelets, or a flirty woman could mean the end of your trip if you’re not careful.</li> </ul> <br clear="none" /> <ul> <li style="text-align: center;">Check out our website at: <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/" shape="rect">Travel Stories Podcast Online</a></li> <li style="text-align: center;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at: hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</li> <li style="text-align: center;">Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at: <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk" shape= "rect">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</a></li> </ul> </div>Listen:

S2E4: Jen Montague - 'Big Moments in Little China'<p>“No matter what our differences are, or what our backgrounds are, there is always going to be a way for us to cooperate and communicate with each other, which I think is really beautiful, and an amazing part of travel.”</p> <p>Though cultural variations can make it seem like every human has a great deal of differences from another, when it comes right down to it, there is so much everyone has in common. In our world, people actually have a great deal of similarities, and traveling to faraway places and getting to know the area you have traveled to can help bring that out during your own personal adventures.</p> <p>Our guest for this week, Jen Montague, is a travel photographer and a writer - though she considers herself, first and foremost, to be an adventurer. She takes photos when she travels because she enjoys capturing the day-to-day moments of far-away places, and then sharing what she sees with those around her. She also writes articles, and would love to write more, if anyone would be interested in working with her. She loves traveling and learning from other cultures around the world. She believes that, “wherever you go in the world, there’s so many things that we actually have in common.”</p> <p>It is hard to travel to a culture and a country that you are unfamiliar with and that is not your own, but Jen talks about how you have more in common with distant strangers than you might think. In a truly inspiring tale about a visit to China, Jen discusses how drastically different Beijing could be, while also revealing just how close humanity is at their core. Thanks to globalization and a natural human curiosity, the world is a lot smaller than ever before. That makes travel that much more fun and exciting - you have so much in common with the people you share your world with.</p> <p>Join Hayden and Jen as they discuss the worth of a photograph, a secret section of the Great Wall of China, an unexpected Chinese culture, and how playing games with children can break any language barrier in minutes.</p> <p> </p> <ul> <li>3:07 - Jen starts out with a personal discussion of what she believes it means to be truly lost.</li> <li>10:40 - Jen starts her story about traveling to China, aptly named “Big Moments in Little China”.</li> </ul> <ul> <li>While in China, Jen learned that - while it can be drastically different in terms of culture, and it can be very crowded, very hot, with a lack of personal space - the people there are closer to her own culture than she ever could have expected.</li> <li>Jen is amazed by old temples and structures made by hand, and so she traveled to and climbed the unkempt Wild Wall section of the Great Wall of China.</li> </ul> <ul> <li>21:00 - Jen and Hayden start discussing her thoughts and experiences concerning Chinese culture, and just how completely unexpected she found it to be.</li> </ul> <ul> <li>Jen recommends familiarizing yourself with an unfamiliar culture and being aware of their way of life, but also keeping an open mind.</li> <li>Can blending in give you a better experience abroad?</li> </ul> <ul> <li>27:04 - Hayden recounts a time when he learned that the language barrier might not be as much of a problem anymore with the younger generations, thanks to natural human curiosity.</li> <li>Jen leaves us with a bit of optimistic advice for all of your future travels and experiences with new cultures.</li> </ul> <p> </p> <ul> <li>Check out our website at: <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/" shape="rect">Travel Stories Podcast Online</a></li> <li>Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at: <a href= "mailto:hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com" shape= "rect">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</a></li> <li>Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at: <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk" shape= "rect">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</a></li> <li>The best way to contact Jen Montague would be to follow her on Twitter at: <a href="https://twitter.com/_LostAbroad" shape= "rect">@_LostAbroad</a></li> <li>You can also see Jen’s pictures by following her on Instagram at: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/lost.abroad/" shape= "rect">@lost.abroad</a></li> <li>Check out Jen’s entire website and catalogue of experiences at: <a href="http://lostabroad.wix.com/home" shape="rect">Lost Abroad</a></li> </ul>Listen:

6 Tips on Travel Planning (Hayden's Travel Tips 007)<p style="text-align: center;">Have you ever decided to take a trip and just taken off?</p> <p style="text-align: center;">Or are you more the type to sit down and plan out every second of your journey before you set foot in an airport?</p> <p style="text-align: center;">Hayden Lee brings back guest Guy Earnshaw, our pigeon-fearing friend from our last episode, to help him count down six travel tips concerning planning during traveling. The two of them offer unique perspectives - Hayden likes to be able to do things on a whim and have minimal planning, while Guy likes to sit down with a map and make out a plan and a schedule and a list of things to do, but be open to spontaneous experiences.</p> <p style="text-align: center;">If you have decided you want to travel, regardless of whether you plan your adventures by the second or if you enjoy the freedom of backpacking and couchsurfing without a plan, Hayden and Guy will give you six helpful travel tips before you head out on your journey.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li>0:20 - Guy Earnshaw, from the last episode, joins Hayden to help give travel tips <ul> <li>Hayden, on one hand, likes to be able to do things on a whim and have minimal planning</li> <li>Guy, on the other hand, likes to sit down with a map and make out a plan and a schedule and a list of things to do, but he thinks it is truly important to be open to spontaneous experiences</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li>1:17 - Hayden’s Travel Tips on Planning During Traveling <ul> <li>Tip #1 - Never be married to your plan <ul> <li>Guy once had one of his best nights out ever when he had a spontaneous night with people he had never met before</li> <li>When Hayden went to North and South Vietnam, he would travel on his motorbike first, then mark where he traveled on the map, rather than the other way around</li> </ul> </li> <li> Tip #2 - Have a physical map <ul> <li>Your physical map can bring you into an adventure mindset that makes you a “traveler” - second only to your traveler’s hat!</li> </ul> </li> <li> Tip #3 - Get a handle on your money <ul> <li>Guy has a relatable anecdote about the first time he went to a casino while he was in Perth</li> </ul> </li> <li> Tip #4 - Check for last-minute deals <ul> <li>Hayden’s continued anecdote about when he had to get a last-minute flight out of New York using SkyScanner to get a good, cheap flight</li> </ul> </li> <li>Tip #5 - Use <a href="https://www.skyscanner.com/" target= "_blank" rel="noopener" shape="rect">SkyScanner</a>!</li> <li>Tip #6 - Couchsurf <ul> <li>If you want to maximize couchsurfing as a reliable form of accommodation, you’ll want to give your potential hosts enough notice</li> <li>Guy has a charming anecdote about last-minute couchsurfing in Oregon</li> <li><a href="https://www.couchsurfing.com/" target="_blank" rel= "noopener" shape="rect">Couchsurfing</a></li> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> </ul> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <p style="text-align: center;">Check out our website at: <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/" target="_blank" rel= "noopener" shape="rect">Travel Stories Podcast Online</a></p> <p style="text-align: center;">Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at: hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</p> <p style="text-align: center;">Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at: <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk" target="_blank" rel= "noopener" shape="rect">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</a></p> <p style="text-align: center;">If you want to contact Guy Earnshaw, go through Hayden on Twitter or through email and he will relay the message for you!</p>Listen:

S2E3: Guy Earnshaw - 'A Cairns Adventure, A Coward's Surprise'<p style="text-align: center;">Nobody is born with enough experience to fight off the last living dinosaurs - or even a pigeon, for that matter. That experience can only come with age, but even age can not guarantee that a spider won’t make you scream as much as a saltwater crocodile will.</p> <p style="text-align: center;">Experience and wisdom come with time, but your mindset can make up for a lack of it all. Keeping a positive mindset while you are travelling and while you are snug at home means everything to how you influence your own experience of your world. Both your home world and your travel world can be your real world, with the right mindset.</p> <div style="text-align: center;">Our guest for this episode, Guy Earnshaw, brings to the table a couple of fun stories where he is confronted with a beast in the wild and did little more than shriek and run away. Guy and Hayden also talk to us about taking your travel mindset home with you and inspire yourself to stay positive, even when your boots are not on the ground somewhere far from home. Plus, Guy’s northern accent helps you pronounce “Cairns”, and he dictates his fear of specific birds.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">Enjoy listening to Guy wax poetic about the Cairns rainforest, wax fearful about cassowaries, and join Hayden in advising on how to keep your positive travel mindset going year-round.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li>1:30 - Guy talks about the appeal of traveling to different locations</li> </ul> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li>People have tricked themselves into thinking that traveling is the only good time, but they can actually have a good time in between travels</li> <li>There are benefits to both “real worlds” - the travel world, and the home world</li> <li>Guy advises to keep a positive mentality, to bring a positive mindset to your home world, to be more open, talk to strangers, get lost, don’t go the same way to work every time, and to try to see the fun in the day-to-day</li> <li>Mindset matters more than anything when it comes to your outlook and your experience</li> </ul> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li><a href= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/2016/05/04/7-mindset-tips-for-traveling-haydens-travel-tips-003/" shape="rect">Travel Tips Episode #3, Having A Good Mindset Whilst Traveling</a></li> </ul> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li><strong><a href= "http://travelstoriespodcast.com/2016/05/19/302/" shape= "rect">Travel Tips Episode #5, Experiencing Travel</a></strong></li> <li><strong>7:25 - Guy starts talking about his young life and how he started travelling</strong></li> </ul> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li><strong>Guy will be travelling around just California in August for three weeks, and he invites listeners to come and see him while he’s there!</strong></li> </ul> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li><strong>13:00 - A Cairns Adventure, A Coward’s Surprise - Guy starts telling a story from when he, his Uncle Martin, and his Uncle Martin’s nine-year-old grandson travelled in Cairns, a rainforest wonderland in Australia</strong></li> </ul> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li><strong>Guy proves (through a couple of amusing stories in which he shrieks, grabs his second cousin, and hides) that you’re not always what you’d expect you’d be when you’re adventuring, and you never know how you’ll react to a situation until it happens</strong></li> </ul> <ul style="text-align: center;"> <li><strong>24:20 - Travel Tip - Keep on top of safety in any city you’re in, don’t get scared and go over the actions so you don’t freeze up</strong></li> <li><strong>25:38 - Guy advises listeners not to let being at home be the end of your enjoyment and your experience; take your travel mindset home with you and apply it to your hometown life - look for the beautiful things in your life at home</strong></li> </ul> <p style="text-align: center;"><strong> </strong></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Check out our website at: <a href="http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com/" shape="rect">Travel Stories Podcast Online</a></strong></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at: hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</strong></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at: <a href= "http://www.twitter.com/travelstoriesuk" shape= "rect">@travelstoriesuk on Twitter</a></strong></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><strong>If you want to contact Guy Earnshaw, go through Hayden on Twitter or through email and he will relay the message for you!</strong></p>Listen:

7 Tips for Flying (Hayden's Travel Tips 006)<p style="text-align: center;">It’s Travel Tips time again! Today, Hayden gives seven tips on flying. Included among these tips are items like how you really ought to bring a sarong everywhere you go, a special place to sleep underneath Bangkok Airport, and how the person next to you on a flight can really be the best part of the journey. Hayden is also long since over his fear of flying, and knows that different people handle flying and traveling differently, so his tips are as universal as can be. Hayden wants to make sure you know to be the last one on the plane, how to avoid jet lag, and what kind of headphones would be best for you while you fly. So let’s dive in for some helpful travel tips on flying, so you can optimize your next adventure.</p> <p style="text-align: center;">● 1:06 - Seven Tips on Flying</p> <p style="text-align: center;">○ 1:19 - Tip #1 - Sync your sleep to avoid jet lag.</p> <p style="text-align: center;">■ Of course you can sync your sleep, but what else can you get into rhythm before flying?</p> <p style="text-align: center;">○ 2:54 - Tip #2 - Be the last one on the plane.</p> <p style="text-align: center;">○ 4:20 - Tip #3 - Bring a sarong, or, ‘a multi-purpose Swiss-Army-material’.</p> <p style="text-align: center;">○ 5:26 - Tip #4 - Sleep in the airport.</p> <p style="text-align: center;">○ 7:23 - Tip #5 - Use closed-back headphones.</p> <p style="text-align: center;">○ 8:18 - Tip #6 - Walk around during the flight.</p> <p style="text-align: center;">■ Hayden shows how this actually made him realize he’d missed a flight.</p> <p style="text-align: center;">○ 9:25 - Tip #7 - Talk to the person next to you.</p> <p style="text-align: center;">■ He could have appeared in the hit film ‘The Pianist’.</p> <p style="text-align: center;">Travel Stories Podcast Links</p> <p style="text-align: center;">● Check out our website at: <a href= "https://awesound.com/click/http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com" target="_blank" rel= "nofollow noopener">travelstoriespodcast.com</a></p> <p style="text-align: center;">● Email Hayden (he’ll answer everything) at: <a href= "https://awesound.com/click/mailto:hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com" target="_blank" rel= "noopener">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</a></p> <p style="text-align: center;">● Follow Hayden on Twitter and send him a Tweet (he’ll really answer everything) at: @travelstoriesuk</p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <p class="text-muted" style="text-align: center;"> </p> <p class="lead" style="text-align: center;"> </p>Listen:

S2E2: Deepak Shukla - 'Moonlight Running'<p style="text-align: center;">What's it like to run 20 Iron Man competitions?</p> <p style="text-align: center;">What about living in and traveling to different countries around the world?</p> <p style="text-align: center;">Can you remember the last time someone was truly selfless, with nothing in it for them?</p> <p style="text-align: center;">We know that people like this exist, people that do things out of the kindness of their heart for their fellow man, but how often do we meet them? They often seem to arise in times of need. Those times when we're down to our last dollar, our last meal, our last step, and they swoop in and show their genuine generosity.</p> <p style="text-align: center;">Our guest for this episode is Deepak Shukla, a podcasting buddy of mine and host of the Life, Love and Entrepreneurship podcast. This was one of those episodes where everything he said was pure gold, so nothing got cut and we're running a little longer than usual. In this episode, we talk about:</p> <p style="text-align: center;">- Running ultra-marathons, iron man competitions and being a badass.</p> <p style="text-align: center;">- Living in a different country as opposed to traveling through it.</p> <p style="text-align: center;">- What it's really like to live in Rio De Janeiro.</p> <p style="text-align: center;">- Relationships, both during travel and in general- is intensity worth more than duration?</p> <p style="text-align: center;">- Deepak's podcast: Life, Love and Entrepreneurship</p> <p style="text-align: center;">- Taking necessary irrational leaps to start you on your journey, travel or otherwise.</p> <p style="text-align: center;">- ... And much more.</p> <p style="text-align: center;">As always, he is accompanied by original music that really allows the story to come to life and take us along the journey with Deepak.</p> <p style="text-align: center;">If you enjoy the show and you’re on iTunes or stitcher, please subscribe and leave us a rating and review. Being a relatively new show, it really does help out a lot, and we do appreciate it!</p> <p style="text-align: center;">Get in contact:</p> <p style="text-align: center;">EMAIL: <a href= "https://awesound.com/click/mailto:hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com" target="_blank" rel= "noopener">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</a> (I answer everything)</p> <p style="text-align: center;">TWITTER: @travelstoriesuk (I answer everything)</p> <p style="text-align: center;">WEBSITE: <a href= "https://awesound.com/click/http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com" target="_blank" rel= "nofollow noopener">travelstoriespodcast.com</a></p> <p style="text-align: center;">LIVE, LOVE AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP PODCAST: <a href= "https://awesound.com/click/https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/life-love-entrepreneurship/id1101139264?mt=2" target="_blank" rel= "nofollow noopener">itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/life-love-entrepreneurship/id11...</a></p> <p style="text-align: center;">DEEPAK ON TWITTER: @deepakpshukla1</p>Listen:

7 Tips on Experiencing Travel (Hayden's Travel Tips 005)<div style="text-align: center;">Today's 'Hayden's Travel Tips' takes on the topic of 'Experiencing Travel'.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">Now I know what you're thinking. How hard is it? You get a flight, you book in at a place and you go out and see what's going on.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">Right- and that's cool, everyone's got their own way of doing things- but I'm talking adventure. I'm talking wildest dreams. I'm talking "I have to email Hayden because he won't believe this travel story".</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">I hope you guys enjoy these 7 tips on experiencing travel- Put at least one into use and let me know how it goes!</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> <div>If you enjoy the show and you’re on iTunes or stitcher, please subscribe and leave us a rating and review. Being a relatively new show, it really does help out a lot, and we do appreciate it!</div> <div> </div> <div>Get in contact:</div> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">EMAIL: <a href= "mailto:hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</a> (I answer everything)</div> <div style="text-align: center;">TWITTER: @travelstoriesuk (I answer everything)</div> <div style="text-align: center;">WEBSITE: <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com">www.travelstoriespodcast.com</a></div> <div> <div style="text-align: center;">FACEBOOK: <a href= "http://www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast">www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast</a></div> </div>Listen:

S2E1: Shane Dallas - 'A Warm Welcome in a Harsh Land'<p style="text-align: center;">You know when you get to a country with all your preconceived ideas and it's nothing like you thought it was going to be?</p> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">Maybe you saw some things in the news, maybe your Aunt knows someone who's cousin went there and they had a tough time, or maybe you just have a bad feeling about it. Then you get there, and the people are the nicest you've ever met and you have the greatest time.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">Boy, does that happen often. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">Our guest for this episode is Shane Dallas, otherwise known as the Travel Camel, who loves going to these sorts of places. He's been to almost 100 countries, including all over the middle east, Afghanistan, India and many others. His experience in these countries is a first hand account of how things can be if you go into traveling with an open mind and clear of preconceptions.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> <div> </div> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-family: HelveticaNeue; font-size: small;">As always, he is accompanied by original music that really allows the story to come to life and take us along the journey with Shane.</span></div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> <div>If you enjoy the show and you’re on iTunes or stitcher, please subscribe and leave us a rating and review. Being a relatively new show, it really does help out a lot, and we do appreciate it!</div> <div> </div> <div>Get in contact:</div> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">EMAIL: <a href= "mailto:hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</a> (I answer everything)</div> <div style="text-align: center;">TWITTER: @travelstoriesuk (I answer everything)</div> <div style="text-align: center;">WEBSITE: <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com">www.travelstoriespodcast.com</a></div> <div style="text-align: center;"> <div>FACEBOOK: <a href= "http://www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast">www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast</a></div> </div> <div> <div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">SHANE EVERYWHERE: TheTravelCamel</div> <div style="text-align: center;">TTC ONLINE: www.thetravelcamel.com</div> <div style="text-align: center;">The Road Less Traveled Twitter Hashtag: #TRLT</div> </div> </div>Listen:

4 Tips on Dealing With a Break-Up Whilst Traveling (Hayden's Travel Tips 004)<div style="text-align: center;">Most of my listeners don't know, but when I started out traveling, it was actually in a couple, Me and my then girlfriend packed our things and moved to Australia. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">Now, when people ask me about my perfect girl, I describe what my perfect girl's like, her attributes, her temperament, her beliefs, and they ask: "So why did you break up with her?"</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">She was a beautiful person, still is, but as you all know, sometimes even the most perfect of things don't work out.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">One day as we were hanging out, drinking some wine, I said "Hey, you know how we've just been, like, friends for a while, right?"</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">"Yeah..." She said.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">"Let's just... do that?"</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">"Yeah, I like that." She replied. Easiest breakup ever. But that doesn't mean the emotions following were any lessened- and that was when I found myself traveling solo through Asia, reinventing myself, getting in touch with myself, and finding out who 'I' was.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <ol style="text-align: center;"> <li>Don't Go 'Home'</li> </ol> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">When we're hurt, in trouble or anything else like that, our immediate reaction is to seek comfort. Where's the most comfortable place? Of course, Disney World, but I'm talking about 'home'. You'll want to jet off there and be surrounded by your loved ones so bad.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">My advice on this is not to. Here's the secret- you're strong enough to get through it. This is a moment in life where you've fallen off the climbing frame and you want to run to your Dad- what I'm suggesting is to brush yourself off, and carry on, because you know what? You can. And you'll be glad you did.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <ol style="text-align: center;" start="2"> <li>Reframe Yourself</li> </ol> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">When you come out of a relationship, your view of yourself is shifted. You've spent so long being Karen and Bobby that you know longer know who Karen is, without Bobby. Why do you think people jump from relationship to relationship? Because they feel scared when they can't relate to themselves anymore. Like when you're in a room with a friend and their friend, then your friend leaves. What do you talk about? What if they don't get your sense of humour? "God, I wish my friend would come back... with more wine..."</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">As we know, when you're on the road, you learn more about yourself than anything else. So go out and learn. Find out what you're like in different situations, if you can trust yourself with different scenarios and how you handle life. You are not part of a whole, you are a whole person.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">Also, one of the coolest things about travel is that there are no yesterdays on the road. What I mean by that is that when you meet someone, they're not meeting Karen, the 24 year old artist that has spent the last 6 years planning a life with Bobby- they're meeting Karen, a girl with a smile on her face. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">And whether or not you want to go into it with them, that's the first interaction, and that's what they're basing you on- that's why they like you. For you. They don't see you as half of a couple. Let me rephrase that- they know you're not half of a couple- they know you're a unique, open human being with whom they have the potential to create some amazing memories.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <ol style="text-align: center;" start="3"> <li>Music</li> </ol> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">Ah, the great healer. Music can tell you things about yourself that even you didn't know. Whether it's that you "Weren't born to follow" or that you like to "Move it, move it"- it speaks languages that you understand deeply.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">One album I would recommend is Relient K's 'Forget and Not Slow Down'. The guitarist and singer went through a bad breakup, locked himself in a cabin in the forest and wrote this album. Formerly a punk rock band, but now more poppy- this record will speak to you throughout every song. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">That, and Sigur Ros' 'Takk'.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <ol style="text-align: center;" start="4"> <li>Introverts: Take The Time / Extroverts: Make the Time</li> </ol> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">Firstly, for all of you introverts out there, like myself, we get our energy from solitude. That's where we do our thinking, assess everything, come to conclusions and heal.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">So whilst traveling, it's amazing to have alone time. It's also very hard sometimes to have some alone time. But no matter where you are, you are always able to wander off, put on 'Takk' by Sigur Ros and have your time. This will be so beneficial, regardless of what you do. If you want to imagine your life over the next year and all of the new possibilities, or remember the good times and cry your way through an album or nine, it's all healing.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">You extroverts out there, I'll speak on it even though I have no first hand experience, but, remember that journeying on the road is not just a sole venture. There are tonnes of travelers anywhere you go, and you know what they want? The same thing you do- they want connection, friendship and the knowledge that other people like them are out there enjoying the life that they're given.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">So find these people, whether it's the three German girls in your hostel or an elderly man fixing a motorbike on his driveway, and introduce yourself. Remember, there are no yesterdays on the road.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">And in the words of the guitarist and singer that locked himself in the cabin-</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">"I'd rather forget and not slow down, than gather regrets for what I can't change now."</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div> <div style="text-align: center;"> <div>If you enjoy the show and you’re on iTunes or stitcher, please subscribe and leave us a rating and review. Being a relatively new show, it really does help out a lot, and we do appreciate it!</div> <div> </div> <div>Get in contact:</div> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">EMAIL: <a href= "mailto:hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</a> (I answer everything)</div> <div style="text-align: center;">TWITTER: @travelstoriesuk (I answer everything)</div> <div style="text-align: center;">WEBSITE: <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com">www.travelstoriespodcast.com</a></div> <div style="text-align: center;">FACEBOOK: <a href= "http://www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast">www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast</a></div> <div> <div> <div style="text-align: center;">INSTAGRAM: @travelstoriespodcast</div> </div> </div> </div>Listen:

S1E12: Nathaniel Boyle - 'Becoming an Explorer'<div style="text-align: center;">'Take the road less traveled'. We've all heard it. But what does it mean? Why should we? Wouldn't we be better off on the safe route that we know is going to end well.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">Well, that's one way to look at it, sure, but can you name an adventure you've had on your way to the office? Or in line at the post office? </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">Adventure comes in all shapes and sizes. To some people, adventure is going into the ocean for the first time- taking that first step in and conquering both land and water. For others, it's hiking solo up one of the tallest mountains in the world. For some, it's trying to write the address on a letter while you're already in line at the post office.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">The thing about travelers is that we seem to instinctively seek adventure in whatever form, so when we're given a choice of two roads, there's a likely winner, and this is one of the things that truly make us just that- travelers. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">Our guest for this, probably my favourite episode so far, is Nathaniel Boyle from The Travelers podcast and Holocene (both of which I strongly recommend checking out- links down below), and he's come prepared with giant bags of wisdom, and an amazing adventure recount up his sleeve.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> <div> </div> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> <div>As always, he is accompanied by original music that really allows the story to come to life and take us along the journey with Nathaniel. Hats off again to our composer, Cody Crabb, for providing some great original music.</div> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> <div>If you enjoy the show and you’re on iTunes or stitcher, please subscribe and leave us a rating and review. Being a relatively new show, it really does help out a lot, and we do appreciate it!</div> <div> </div> <div>Get in contact:</div> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">EMAIL: <a href= "mailto:hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</a> (I answer everything)</div> <div style="text-align: center;">TWITTER: @travelstoriesuk (I answer everything)</div> <div style="text-align: center;">WEBSITE: <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com">www.travelstoriespodcast.com</a></div> <div style="text-align: center;">FACEBOOK: <a href= "http://www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast">www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast</a></div> <div style="text-align: center;"> <div> <div>INSTAGRAM: @travelstoriespodcast</div> </div> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">Holocene: www.holocene.io</div> <div style="text-align: center;">Nathaniel on Twitter: @nathaniel</div> <div style="text-align: center;">Nathaniel everywhere else: @nathanielboyle</div>Listen:

S1E11: Chris Christensen - 'The Kindness of Strangers'<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Can you remember the story of the last person you met on the road? Most of the time, they take you into their home, show you how they live, how they work, and you realise how your lives intertwine, with the similarities, eccentricities and novelty of it all. </span></div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-size: 10pt;">This is one of the gifts that travel gives us. The opportunity to not only fulfil our wanderlust, but to connect with other humans that are sharing our world, and allow them into our lives, and they do for us.</span></div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Our guest for this episode, Chris Christensen from the Amateur Traveler Podcast has a story for us today that reinforces what we all know - that trusting strangers is… more often than not… probably a good idea. He takes us on a journey into Mexico, tells us all about the ancient history and provides us with more than a few laughs along the way.</span></div> <div style="text-align: center;"> <div> </div> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> <div><span style="font-size: 10pt;">As always, he is accompanied by original music that really allows the story to come to life and take us along the journey with Chris.</span></div> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> <div><span style="font-size: 10pt;">If you enjoy the show and you’re on iTunes or stitcher, please subscribe and leave us a rating and review. Being a relatively new show, it really does help out a lot, and we do appreciate it!</span></div> <div> </div> <div><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Get in contact:</span></div> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-size: 10pt;">EMAIL: <a href= "mailto:hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</a> (I answer everything)</span></div> <div style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-size: 10pt;">TWITTER: @travelstoriesuk (I answer everything)</span></div> <div style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-size: 10pt;">WEBSITE: <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com">www.travelstoriespodcast.com</a></span></div> <div style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-size: 10pt;">FACEBOOK: <a href= "http://www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast">www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast</a></span></div> <div style="text-align: center;"> <div> <div><span style="font-size: 10pt;">INSTAGRAM: @travelstoriespodcast</span></div> </div> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-size: 10pt;">Amateur Traveler: www.amateurtraveler.com</span></div> <div style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-size: 10pt;">Chris on Twitter: @chris2x</span></div> <div style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-size: 10pt;">Chris on Pinterest/Instagram etc.: chris2x</span></div>Listen:

7 Mindset Tips for Traveling (Hayden's Travel Tips 003)<div> <div style="text-align: center;"><strong>7 Mindset Tips for Traveling</strong></div> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <ol style="text-align: center;"> <li>Wake Up Early</li> </ol> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">I’m reminded of a quote from one of the greatest philosophers of our time. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">“There’s no such thing as spare time, no such thing as free time, no such thing as down time. All you got it life time."</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">Did I say philosopher? I meant angry lead singer of 80s hardcore punk band, Black Flag, but the point still stands- get yourself out of bed and get moving. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">Do you ever get that feeling when you’re awake super early, and you’re the only one around and you feel like it’s ‘your day’, and you welcome everyone else as they join you on your day:</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">“Oh, hi! Welcome to my day! You’ve missed a glorious three hours already, let me catch you up to speed."</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">When you’re traveling, the amount of things to see and do goes up a ridiculous amount, and if you’re only waking up at midday, just think of the things you miss. The sunrise, the locals setting up market stalls, the roosters crowing- you’re gonna want to soak that stuff in, because it’s far more interesting than the inside of your eyelids.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <ol style="text-align: center;" start="2"> <li>Laugh at Yourself</li> </ol> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">In foreign countries where you don’t speak the language, you’re going to get laughed at. I remember I had stopped in the mountains, and I started talking to a few people. They would say something in their local language, and I would immediately start trying to translate things I wanted to say, using books, translators and hand gestures that would put the world’s charades champion to shame. Only to be given an immediate response in the same, local language.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> When they could see I was obviously confused, their first reaction was to laugh. Literally pointing, laughing. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">What’s a guy to do? Simple. Laugh at yourself. The road is no place for anger and humility will always bring better consequences. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">In the end, they noticed I had a guitar and we sat and played for a bit. If they laughed at my guitar playing though, that would be a different story.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <ol style="text-align: center;" start="3"> <li>Don’t Give Up</li> </ol> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">If you listened to the last episode, you’ll have heard the story of how Meg Jerrard saved for her travels. She caught the travel bug, realised that it was something she wanted, and strived for it. She worked two full time jobs whilst studying full time. She’d regularly work 6am-11pm, and the most she worked was 110 odd hours a week. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">They key takeaway here is that she didn’t give up. She knew that it was something she wanted, and she made it happen. So remember this, whether you think that you can’t live a life of travel and wonder, or that you can- you’re right. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <ol style="text-align: center;" start="4"> <li>Open Your Mind</li> </ol> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">“Oh I would never do that, it’s not my thing.” often transforms into “I can’t believe how amazing that was” with the catalyst of “Go on, I guess I’ll give it a go."</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">That happens a lot more than you think. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">Remember that you are not you. I know that sounds weird, but, hear me out. You are not this person that has likes and dislikes, things they do, things they don’t do - you are just ‘You So Far’. Not a lot of people pack up and move to New Zealand to be a skydiving instructor out of the blue - what happens a lot though, is they’re in New Zealand, get talked into going skydiving and realise that it’s the thing they love most in the world. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">So the advice here is not to just try new things. But to try every-thing. Everything that’s offered to you (fatal allergies aside) should be considered deeply. You are a gold miner, and your pan is filled with experiences, and each pan full you get has the potential to contain a big nugget- so don’t throw away half of the pan before you’ve explored it. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <ol style="text-align: center;" start="5"> <li>Don’t Believe the News</li> </ol> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">Would you believe me if I said “I had a terrible time in India, it’s so corrupt.”? </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">Would you believe me if I said “My time in India was life changing. I fell in love, learnt about myself and found the most welcoming people in the world.”?</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">I’d rather you didn’t believe either. Why? Because you’re seeing it through my lens. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">With the news, it gets a little deeper. It’s more like I have an interest in you liking or not liking India- so my review of the place is.. coloured with intention? </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">Don’t not go to Bangkok because a report said it’s bad for backpackers. Don’t not go to Greece because a report said it’s a terrible time to visit. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">You’ll form your own opinion of a place by visiting it and experiencing it, and don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">By the way, the second review of mine about India is true. But go find out for yourself.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <ol style="text-align: center;" start="6"> <li>Say ‘Yes!'</li> </ol> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">If you’ve listened to the show for a while, you might have heard my eight-fingered Vietnamese man story. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">The twitter version is: I had just arrived in Saigon, bag on my back, looking around and an eight fingered old man parked up next to me on his motorbike. He hands me a book. “If you’re reading this, you’re standing in front of Captain Kim; go with this man.”</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">Obviously I said yes, hopped on his bike and had the most amazing time in the Mekong Delta.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">I cannot count the number of times that saying ‘Yes!’ has led to something amazing. The best was saying ‘Yes!’ when I really wanted to say ‘No.’ This word has so much power. It’s like someone knowing there’s a nugget of gold in your pan and asking you if you want to have a look or throw it away. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">As often as you can, say ‘Yes!’ to everything.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <ol style="text-align: center;" start="7"> <li>Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff (It’s all small stuff)</li> </ol> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">This one is one that you learn after traveling for a while, but it’s so important. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">What were you doing on this day, one year ago? I can’t remember either, but if I didn’t know that it’s all small stuff, I would probably have been stressing about something that was SURE to put my life in a downward spiral and send me on a course that I would never come back from.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">You’d think I’d remember that a year out? </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">However big a problem may seem, you’re not going to remember it. And it won’t take a long time at all to forget it. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">Checking in for a flight into New Delhi, I was told “You can’t check in.” </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">Check in closed in twenty minutes. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">Apparently in order to get into India, I needed a flight out. Was I going to be stranded in an airport, nowhere to go, travel plans ruined? Of course not, the chicken place had free wifi. I bought a flight to the first place that came up near India (Kathmandu) and checked in. No problems. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">What if there was no wifi? I would have sorted it out. What if my battery was gone? I would have sorted it out. What if, going to the chicken place I tripped, broke both legs and knocked myself out on a table? </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">When I woke up I would have sorted out both a flight and wheelchair. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">Don’t sweat the small stuff. And don’t forget- it’s all small stuff. </div>Listen:

S1E10: Meg Jerrard - 'Long Distance Love'<div> <div style="text-align: center;">Imagine this. You’re signed up to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. What are you expecting? </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">A gruelling climb, blisters, a new sense of self? Sure. You’re about to climb the highest mountain in Africa, scale 16,000 feet to summit surely one of the world’s most magnificent natural wonders. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">Well, our guest for this episode, Meg Jerrard (Found online everywhere under ‘Mapping Megan’) found something she was definitely not expecting on her solo travel trip. Her story gives us insight into the day she found her most important travel souvenir, as we also learn through Megan what travel means to her, and how if you truly follow your heart and desires, you can make anything possible.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> <div> </div> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> <div>As always, she is accompanied by original music that really allows the story to come to life and take us along the journey with Megan.</div> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> <div>If you enjoy the show and you’re on iTunes or stitcher, please subscribe and leave us a rating and review. Being a relatively new show, it really does help out a lot, and we do appreciate it!</div> <div> </div> <div>Get in contact:</div> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">EMAIL: <a href= "mailto:hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</a> (I answer everything)</div> <div style="text-align: center;">TWITTER: @travelstoriesuk (I answer everything)</div> <div style="text-align: center;">WEBSITE: <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com">www.travelstoriespodcast.com</a></div> <div style="text-align: center;">FACEBOOK: <a href= "http://www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast">www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast</a></div> <div style="text-align: center;"> <div>INSTAGRAM: @travelstoriespodcast</div> <div>CODY CRABB (COMPOSER): www.codycrabb.weebly.com</div> </div> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> <div>Links for episode:</div> </div> <div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">Mapping Megan: www.mappingmegan.com</div> <div style="text-align: center;">Meg on Twitter: @mappingmegan</div> <div style="text-align: center;">Meg on Facebook: www.facebook.com/mappingmegan</div> </div>Listen:

S1E9: Craig & Linda Martin - 'On the Way'<div> <div style="text-align: center;">The Camino De Santiago is comprised of many <span style= "font-family: HelveticaNeue; font-size: small;">pilgrimage routes, some starting in France, others in Portugal, Spain and many other places- but all ending up at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain.</span></div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">Many travelers walk these routes and do this pilgrimage, and after finishing, all are left with amazing stories, moments and serendipity that made the pilgrimage one of the most important journeys of their life. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> <div> </div> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"><span style= "font-family: HelveticaNeue; font-size: small;">Our guests for this episode, Craig and Linda Martin from the Indie Travel Podcast are here to tell us about their many journeys on the Camino. Their story goes into the fellow travelers they met on the way, the unexpected occurrences and the actual act of walking that far every single day. Along with a token electrocution, handled brilliantly by Craig.</span></div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> <div>As always, they are accompanied by music and sounds that really allow the story to come to life and take us along the journey with Craig and Linda.</div> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> <div>If you enjoy the show and you’re on iTunes or stitcher, please subscribe and leave us a rating and review. Being a relatively new show, it really does help out a lot, and we do appreciate it!</div> <div> </div> <div>Get in contact:</div> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">EMAIL: <a href= "mailto:hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</a> (I answer everything)</div> <div style="text-align: center;">TWITTER: @travelstoriesuk (I answer everything)</div> <div style="text-align: center;">WEBSITE: <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com">www.travelstoriespodcast.com</a></div> <div style="text-align: center;">FACEBOOK: <a href= "http://www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast">www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast</a></div> <div style="text-align: center;">INSTAGRAM: @travelstoriespodcast</div> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> <div>Links for episode:</div> </div> <div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">Indie Travel Podcast: www.indietravelpodcast.com</div> <div style="text-align: center;">ITP on Twitter: @indietravel</div> </div>Listen:

5 Language Learning Tips (Hayden's Travel Tips 002)<div style="text-align: center;"><strong>5 Language Learning Tips </strong></div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <ol style="text-align: center;"> <li>They Probably Speak English</li> </ol> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">You are very lucky. Just by the fact that you’re comprehending this sentence, you’ve won the language lottery and speak English. Well, if you say ‘brought’ instead of ‘bought’, ‘a whole nother’ and ‘could care less’, then you’re a little behind, but don’t go worrying about that. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">How many times have you studied the language of the country you’re in just before heading outside, repeating the phrase you want to ask over and over in your head so you don’t forget it, only to get the response of “Yeah, just head down this road and take a left” to your masterfully pronounced line.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">Most people you’ll encounter will speak English. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">However, don’t use this as your excuse. <em>Don’t be that guy.</em> People who speak other languages, regardless of their proficiency in English really appreciate it when you’re giving it a go. Even if you ask if you can buy seven million kilos of rice, instead of just seven (which is still a little much if you ask me), it’s the polite, courteous thing to do and it shows that you respect the way that they do things. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <ol style="text-align: center;" start="2"> <li>Key Phrases</li> </ol> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">This is where phrasebooks can be great tools. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">So when I get to a new country, the first thing I learn is the number system- the numbers one to a billion (totally necessary in countries with a ridiculous currency). Sounds like a lot right? Well, think about it. 1-10. How the teens work, how the multiples of ten work, 100. 1000. 1,000,000, 1,000,000,000. That’s about 16 things to remember, and you’ve nailed the number system. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">After that, just think about what you’re going to be doing with your time? If you’re doing a lot of market-hopping, learn the words for “How much?”, “Nah mate, that’s far too expensive” and “I wasn’t born yesterday”. Spending a lot of time bungee jumping? Learn phrases like “Are you sure this thing is tied on?” and “Arghhh why did I decide to do this??”. If you’re in Brazil, that one’s “Ayy, por que eu decidir fazer isso??” You’re welcome. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">But realistically, you can get by for 80% of life in that country with 20% of the vocabulary. (Big love to Mr. Pareto for that one). So as long as you’ve got your everyday encounters sorted, and the activity specific vocab, who cares if your grammar sucks?</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <ol style="text-align: center;" start="3"> <li>Body Language</li> </ol> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">Have you ever been on a balcony, looking down onto a situation that you just know is a breakup. You can tell. We’re smart, man. We can tell what people are saying without even hearing them. Use this! Head onto the interwebz, watch some youtube videos of Czech body language, Cuban body language, find out what it’s all about. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">Stick your tongue out at someone in tibet, don’t make too much eye contact in certain parts of Asia and Africa, and wave your arms about in Italy to express… anything at all.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <ol style="text-align: center;" start="4"> <li>Films</li> </ol> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">Want a good way to stick this all together and see it in action? Check out some films. Dissect what they’re doing, how they’re saying things, what you understand from the situation- and you will be a lot more prepared when you’re in that country. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">I’d suggest a first time with subtitles, then a second without. The first will get you translating in your head, and understanding how they express certain things, and the second time will get you trying to get a feel for what they’re saying without the use of vocabulary knowledge- a skill which you will definitely need if you’re still a novice. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">I wouldn’t try to use what you see in the films too much. Characters in films are characters. Imagine meeting a Chinese guy who used this method by watching only Ace Ventura. That. Would. Be. Awesome.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <ol style="text-align: center;" start="5"> <li>Speaking With Native Speaker</li> </ol> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">This has been totally invaluable to me, specifically. Even if you just practice the things you know you’ll need, speaking with a native speaker ups your game from Joey Nobody to Michael Jordan. Or, at least a high school player. Well, the guy that was picked last for the team. But still!</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">No, this isn’t going to seamlessly transition into an advert for a certain new online system so they give me the money I need to get my car a new alternator- what I would suggest is googling ‘The Mixxer’ - where you put in “I speak English, and I want to learn/practice Portuguese”. About an hour later, Maria from Sao Paulo who wants to practice English will be in touch. Now you can either go on Skype, or- my personal favourite- is to do it on WhatsApp. Then you can send Maria a voice message saying “Oi… vôce.. quero fala… comigo?”, to which she’ll reply. “Vôce <em>quer </em>fala! Seu Português é muito rum!” and you’ll be sufficiently embarrassed.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">If you do all these things, not only will you be able to say things you’ll be saying every day, navigate whatever activities you’ll be doing and be able to know when someone wants to let you know something without telling you, but you’ll also know that Maria thinks your Portuguese sucks, but also loves that you’re trying and is patient with you. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">Which is what you should be with yourself. It’s hard. But it’s worth it. <em>Don’t be that guy. </em></div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div> <div style="text-align: center;"> <div>Get in contact:</div> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">EMAIL: <a href= "mailto:hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</a> (I answer everything)</div> <div style="text-align: center;">TWITTER: @travelstoriesuk (I answer everything)</div> <div style="text-align: center;">WEBSITE: <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com">www.travelstoriespodcast.com</a></div> <div style="text-align: center;">FACEBOOK: <a href= "http://www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast">www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast</a></div> <div style="text-align: center;">INSTAGRAM: @travelstoriespodcast</div> </div>Listen:

S1E8: Dr. Paul Johnson - 'Glaciology in Greenland'<div> <div style="text-align: center;"><span class="c1">Have you ever had a moment while travelling that makes you think about life differently? I’m talking near death experiences, things that put everything in perspective. When you can see how giant and unforgiving nature is, or how small and insignificant life is, whilst at the same time being so vast and complex, it really makes you think.</span></div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"><span class="c1">Our guest for this episode, Dr. Paul Johnson blogs at A Luxury Travel Blog, and tells us about a time he was studying for his Glaciology Phd, in one of the most unforgiving, barren areas of land in the world; Greenland, where he learnt a lot more than glaciology- he learnt about the unpredictable nature of… nature, and how he was nearly in the wrong place at the wrong time. </span></div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">As always, he is accompanied by music and sounds that really allow the story to come to life and take us along the journey with Paul.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> <div>If you enjoy the show and you’re on iTunes or stitcher, please subscribe and leave us a rating and review. Being a new show, it really does help out a lot, and we do appreciate it!</div> <div> </div> <div>Get in contact:</div> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">EMAIL: <a href= "mailto:hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</a> (I answer everything)</div> <div style="text-align: center;">TWITTER: @travelstoriesuk (I answer everything)</div> <div style="text-align: center;">WEBSITE: <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com">www.travelstoriespodcast.com</a></div> <div style="text-align: center;">FACEBOOK: <a href= "http://www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast">www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast</a></div> <div style="text-align: center;">INSTAGRAM: @travelstoriespodcast</div> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">Links for episode:</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div> <div style="text-align: center;">A Luxury Travel Blog: www.aluxurytravelblog.com</div> <div style="text-align: center;">Paul on Twitter: @luxury__travel (two underscores!)</div> </div>Listen:

6 Tips on Finding Your Way Around (Hayden's Travel Tips 001)<div> <div style="text-align: center;"><strong>6 Tips on Finding Your Way Around While Traveling </strong></div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <ol style="text-align: center;"> <li>Couchsurfing</li> </ol> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">- This tip is really a two for one. Firstly, you’ll know all of the areas in the place you’re in in no time, and secondly, you get to feel special when you type in “I’m going to be here on this day!” and ten people send you messages all “Let me hang out with you!!” </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">So last year I was in Saigon, and I did this- put on that I’m already there, got the messages, felt special. Then when I came down from my ego high, I replied to the first one. Within 30 minutes the girl I’d been talking to turned up at our meeting place, gave me a helmet and took me everywhere. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">It was a great way to find out where everything was, as well as ask her literally every question I could think of. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <ol style="text-align: center;" start="2"> <li> Google Maps</li> </ol> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">- So the reason I was in Saigon was that I was about to start a solo motorbike journey from the Mekong Delta in the South of Vietnam through the country and up to Hanoi. Instinct was my map and the road was my compass. Then when I would arrive at the end of a road after riding down it for a few hours, I realised that instinct is a terrible map and the road being a compass just doesn’t make any sense, and I turned to Google Maps. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">Two things about this- firstly, you can use this without a data pack. Because it works on the GPS, and not the 3G (or 4G for you space age guys), you can be stuck in the middle of an African swamp and you’re fine. Well, obviously you’re not fine, you’re more like Atreyu’s horse in the NeverEnding Story, but at least you know where it’s all going down. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">Now when I say it works without 3G - directions don’t. You can’t search for a place. But that little blue dot that signifies where you are- that’s essential.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">Finally, with Google Maps, don’t forget. Zoom. You zoom that guy right in there, because every time you don’t zoom, they build an uncrossable river on the road you’re on that you would have seen if you’d just zoomed. Yeah they build a river. It’s a lot of work but it teaches you a lesson.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <ol style="text-align: center;" start="3"> <li>Find a hard copy map</li> </ol> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">- You don’t want to rely on technology if you’re lost. Get yourself a hard copy of a map, even if it’s a simple one from a little shop that has monuments and places of interest. it’ll take some orienteering skills, but you’ll be in much better shape to get where you need to go, even if it’s “past the big triangle thing, across the road shaped like the nike symbol and through something that looks grassy…"</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <ol style="text-align: center;" start="4"> <li>Learn how to use a compass</li> </ol> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">- So you’re phone’s bust. You’re in the rainforest in the wet season. You’re up a mountain and your hard copy map from that little shop blew away. It’s compass time. Even if all it tells you is North is, that’s so much more information than you were working with about 10 or 11 seconds ago, running after your map as the breeze claimed it as one of it’s own. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">Think on a big scale if you have to. “Right, if North is that way, that means the beach is over there, and over the other way is just more jungle. Let’s go that way.” </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">Even if you have to go on a bigger scale- “Right, I’m in the rockies and I live in New York. East it is.” Good pair of shoes and a protein bar and you’ll be home in no time. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <ol style="text-align: center;" start="5"> <li>Ask the locals</li> </ol> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">They’re not going to make fun of you. They’re not going to send you to a weird abandoned factory where their mate Jeff is waiting with a van. They’re much more likely to begin to tell you where to go, realise that you’re just nodding and smiling and offer to take you there. My rule is if you trust the vibe, and you trust the guy, go for it. Unless he says “Sorry I’ve just gotta get this… Yeah Jeff? It’s time."</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <ol style="text-align: center;" start="6"> <li>Don’t - Just Get Lost</li> </ol> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">If I were to have to condense this list into just one, it would be this one. Think about it, what’s the worst thing that’s going to happen if you can’t find your way?</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">You’ll have to book into a hostel that even the teenage clubbing backpackers wouldn’t stay in?</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">You can deal with that.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">All the hostels are closed down, someone’s stolen your wallet, phone, map AND compass and you have to sleep at a bus stop propped up against a bin?</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">We’ve all been there.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">A much more likely scenario is you’ll embark on a journey, a quest that never would have presented itself to you. You’ll meet your new best friends, you’ll do things you never would have decided to do by yourself, and you’ll have a ridiculous travel story to tell. </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> </div> <div> <div style="text-align: center;"> <div>Get in contact:</div> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">EMAIL: <a href= "mailto:hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com">hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com</a> (I answer everything)</div> <div style="text-align: center;">TWITTER: @travelstoriesuk (I answer everything)</div> <div style="text-align: center;">WEBSITE: <a href= "http://www.travelstoriespodcast.com">www.travelstoriespodcast.com</a></div> <div style="text-align: center;">FACEBOOK: <a href= "http://www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast">www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast</a></div> <div> <div style="text-align: center;">INSTAGRAM: @travelstoriespodcast</div> </div> </div>Listen:

S1E6: Sammy Del Ciotto - 'Pushing Comfort Zones and Trusting Strangers'<div> <div style="text-align: center;">How many people do we meet in our lifetime? What about on our travels? Sure, we see them as strangers- they have the potential to hurt us and cause danger. But they also have the potential to bring us the most magical times, wonderful adventures and deepest connections.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">Our guest for this episode, Sammy Del Ciotto asks the question "What would the world be like if we were all that little bit more trusting?” - And gives us some insight from her travelling to Bali, Indonesia, where she learnt the true value of trusting strangers.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">As always, she is accompanied by music and sounds that really allow the story to come to life and take us along the journey with Sammy.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> <div>If you enjoy the show and you’re on iTunes or stitcher, please subscribe and leave us a rating and review. Being a new show, it really does help out a lot, and we do appreciate it!</div> <div> </div> <div>Get in contact:</div> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">EMAIL: hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com (I answer everything)</div> <div style="text-align: center;">TWITTER: @travelstoriesuk</div> <div style="text-align: center;">WEBSITE: www.travelstoriespodcast.com</div> <div style="text-align: center;">FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast</div> <div style="text-align: center;">INSTAGRAM: @travelstoriespodcast</div> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">Links for episode:</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;">www.SammyDelCi.com</div> <div style="text-align: center;">Sammy on Twitter/Instagram: @sammydelci</div>Listen:

S1E5: Michael O'Neal - 'Taking my Parents to Europe'<div> <div>As travellers, we take chances. We go to the places we want to go to, do the things we want to do, and say ‘Yes!’ to everything. But is there one thing you’ve been meaning to do, one place you’ve always wanted to travel to, but you’ve been putting it off? What happens when it’s too late? </div> <div> </div> <div>Our guest for this episode, Michael o’Neal from the Solopreneur Hour & The Hines Ward Show was faced with this decision. He shares with us how he handled it, in true Solopreneur style, by making things happen. </div> <div> </div> <div>As always, he is accompanied by music and sounds that really allow the story to come to life and take us along the journey with Michael.</div> <div> </div> <div> <div>If you enjoy the show and you’re on iTunes or stitcher, please subscribe and leave us a rating and review. Being a new show, it really does help out a lot, and we do appreciate it!</div> <div> </div> <div>Get in contact:</div> </div> <div> </div> <div>EMAIL: hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com (I answer everything)</div> <div>TWITTER: @travelstoriesuk</div> <div>WEBSITE: www.travelstoriespodcast.com</div> <div>FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast</div> <div>INSTAGRAM: @travelstoriespodcast</div> </div> <div> </div> <div>Links for episode:</div> <div> </div> <div><a href= "https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/solopreneur-hour-podcast-michael/id692594227?mt=2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Solopreneur Hour on iTunes</a></div> <div>Solpreneur Hour online: www.solohour.com</div> <div>Michael on Twitter & Snapchat: @solohour</div>Listen:

S1E4: Jackie Nourse - 'The Blind Man'<div> <div>What affects you most about travelling? Is it the smells, the tastes, the sounds? Or is it the sights? As travellers, we cannot help but reminisce to those awe-inspiring views that our eyes have had the good fortune to gaze upon, and their memory never fades.</div> <div> </div> <div>Our guest for this episode, Jackie Nourse (Formerly Laulainen) from the Budget Minded Traveler and TravelingJackie.com gives us her insight into travel, with a fascinating story that will take you on an emotional journey. </div> <div> </div> <div>As always, she is accompanied by music and sounds that really allow the story to come to life and take us along the journey with Jackie.</div> <div> </div> <div> <div>If you enjoy the show and you’re on iTunes or stitcher, please subscribe and leave us a rating and review. Being a new show, it really does help out a lot, and we do appreciate it!</div> <div> </div> <div>Get in contact:</div> </div> <div> </div> <div>EMAIL: hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com (I answer everything)</div> <div>TWITTER: @travelstoriesuk</div> <div>WEBSITE: www.travelstoriespodcast.com</div> <div>FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast</div> <div>INSTAGRAM: @travelstoriespodcast</div> </div> <div> </div> <div>Links for episode:</div> <div> </div> <div>BMT on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/budget-minded-traveler-podcast/id847606288</div> <div>Jackie’s Blog: www.travelingjackie.com</div> <div>Jackie on Twitter: @travelingjackie</div>Listen:

S1E3: Shailesh Sachdeva - 'The Real Surrender Experiment'<div> <div>What would you do if all of the conditions you give yourself were removed? </div> <div> </div> <div>“I need to be financially secure.” “I need to get married.” “I need a house and a family.”</div> <div> </div> <div>What if you already had those things? What would you spend your time on?</div> <div> </div> <div>Our guest for this episode. Shailesh Sachdeva does just that. He surrenders to life, and lives in on his terms. In this episode, Shailesh tells us about how he came to this style of living, his journeys around the world in the lead up to his revelation, and gives us all a challenge that he says will change our lives for the better. </div> <div> </div> <div>As always, he is accompanied by music and sounds that really allow the story to come to life and take us along the journey with Shailesh.</div> <div> </div> <div> <div>If you enjoy the show and you’re on iTunes or stitcher, please subscribe and leave us a rating and review. Being a new show, it really does help out a lot, and we do appreciate it!</div> <div> </div> <div>Get in contact:</div> </div> <div> </div> <div>EMAIL: hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com (I answer everything)</div> <div>TWITTER: @travelstoriesuk</div> <div>FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast</div> <div>INSTAGRAM: @travelstoriespodcast</div> </div> <div> </div> <div>Links for episode:</div> <div> </div> <div>CONTACT SHALIEST: shailesh.sachdeva@gmail.com</div>Listen:

S1E2: Jason Wisdom - 'Freedom in Bali'<div>It’s amazing how Jason Wisdom is so optimistic when so much can go wrong. Isn’t it funny that when we look back on an adventure, the good stuff rises to the top of our memory? The bad stuff, the incidents, the forgotten passport, the lost phone- they all disintegrate into positivity. The funniest parts of stories. </div> <div> </div> <div>In this episode, Jason tells us about his time on the island of Bali, Indonesia- the ups, the downs, and gives a great insight into life on the island.</div> <div> </div> <div>As always, he is accompanied by music and sounds that really allow the story to come to life and take us along the journey with Jason.</div> <div> </div> <div> <div>If you enjoy the show and you’re on iTunes or stitcher, please subscribe and leave us a rating and review. Being a new show, it really does help out a lot, and we do appreciate it!</div> <div> </div> <div>Get in contact:</div> </div> <div> </div> <div>EMAIL: hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com (I answer everything)</div> <div>TWITTER: @travelstoriesuk</div> <div>FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast</div> <div>INSTAGRAM: @travelstoriespodcast</div>Listen:

S1E1: Allan Belem - 'An Interesting Encounter'<div>In this, the first episode of Travel Stories Podcast we talk to fellow traveller Allan Belem, a fantastic guy I met in Hanoi, Vietnam. This episode was recorded in Copake, NY, and Allan brings us a fascinating story about a very interesting experience in New Zealand. </div> <div> </div> <div>As always, he is accompanied by music and sounds that really allow the story to come to life and take us along the journey with Allan.</div> <div> </div> <div> <div>If you enjoy the show and you’re on iTunes or stitcher, please subscribe and leave us a rating and review. Being a new show, it really does help out a lot, and we do appreciate it!</div> <div> </div> <div>Get in contact:</div> </div> <div> </div> <div>EMAIL: hayden@travelstoriespodcast.com (I answer everything)</div> <div>TWITTER: @travelstoriesuk</div> <div>FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/travelstoriespodcast</div> <div>INSTAGRAM: @travelstoriespodcast</div>Listen: